Am I part of a negative social media tie? Construction of a scale.

Abstract

Objective: Negative social media ties can be defined as virtual relationships between two individuals (who may or may not be from the same social circle) who engage with each other, resulting in adverse outcomes for at least one individual. Research indicates that teenagers' social media usage adversely affects them through self-deprecating comparisons, cyberbullying, and participation in high-risk activities. Individuals with negative social media encounters are more prone to social isolation (Primack et al., 2019). The present study develops and validates a scale to measure negative social media ties among individuals in an online social media.

Method: The established process of scale construction involving item generation exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses was used to construct the scale. In addition, regression analysis was done to test for the scale's nomological validity.

Results: The results indicate that the developed negative social media tie scale comprising 11 items is a single-factor construct that satisfies all psychometric properties. Regression analysis supported the nomological validity of the developed scale.

Conclusion: Recently, researchers have shifted their focus to negative ties. In addition, there has been a surge in the usage of social media platforms; this scale can be utilized to assess the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of negative social media ties and contribute to the existing and evolving body of knowledge in this domain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).