College Students’ Romantic Relationships on Facebook: Linking the Gratification for Maintenance to Facebook Maintenance Activity and the Experience of Jealousy

摘要

Previous work indicates that one of the central motives for using Facebook isrnrelationship maintenance and that the use of Facebook is linked with romanticrnjealousy. Grounded in a uses and gratifications perspective, this study examined thernmaintenance motive for using Facebook; positive and negative online maintenancernactivity; and trait, cognitive, emotional, and Facebook jealousy. Results indicate thatrnindividuals who are strongly motivated to use Facebook for relationship maintenancernare more likely to engage in Facebook assurances and monitoring but that there isrna curvilinear relationship between the maintenance motive and the use of onlinernmonitoring. Regarding the patterns of relationships among Facebook maintenancernand the various forms of jealousy, results indicate that the more that individuals usedrnonline monitoring and Facebook openness, the more of all four types of jealousy theyrnreported, whereas the use of Facebook positivity and assurances was negativelyrnassociated with cognitive jealousy. Finally, there was little evidence of a relationshiprnbetween the use of Facebook for maintenance purposes and the experience of jealousy.