Behind Adolescents’ Social Media Use: The Mediating Role of Hope in the Relationship between Imaginary Audience and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

The growing prevalence of social media has made the imaginary audience increasingly relevant to adolescents’ daily experiences. This research examined the potential mediating role of hope in the association between imaginary audience and life satisfaction among junior high school students who actively use social media. A quantitative correlational design incorporating mediation analysis was applied. The participants consisted of 338 junior high school students who met the research criteria and were recruited using purposive sampling. Data were collected using the New Imaginary Audience Scale (NIAS), Satisfaction with Life Scale-Children (SWLS-C), and Children’s Hope Scale (CHS). Spearman’s correlation and mediation analyses using a bootstrapping procedure were conducted. The results demonstrated significant positive associations between imaginary audience and life satisfaction, as well as between imaginary audience and hope. Hope was also significantly and positively associated with life satisfaction. The mediation analysis indicated that hope partially mediated the association between imaginary audience and life satisfaction. These findings indicate that hope may constitute one psychological mechanism underlying the association between imaginary audience and life satisfaction, while also extending developmental psychology research on the well-being of adolescents who use social media.