The Moderating Role of Social Networking Use on the Relationship of Subjective Loneliness and Psychological Well-Being Among Generation Z Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the lives of the people in an adverse manner. Government and non-government agencies across the globe have taken protective measures and protocols just for them to protect the public against the threat of the virus. Such protocols and measures were the announcement on putting many places all over the world in total lockdown for the virus to be controlled and to avoid further increase of damage. In line with this, people began to experience increase level of loneliness since they have been physically separated with their colleagues, peers, family, and loved ones for quite some time. It must be noted that such experience does take a toll on their overall psychological well-being as they slowly suffer from impeded personal self-growth, self-acceptance, purpose in life, establishment of positive and meaningful relationship towards other people, decreased environmental mastery, and hindered autonomy. With the causal relationship shared by the loneliness and psychological well-being variables, it is then the aim of the current study to further expand one’s comprehension regarding the said association. The social networking use will be utilized as a construct that could possibly moderate the identified relationship. To conduct the study, online survey questionnaires was used among 123 Filipino Generation Z adults. The gathered data was analyzed using SPSS. In line with the hypothesis, results showed that the social networking use variable successfully moderated the causal relationship of loneliness and psychological well-being