Social Comparison and Emotion across Social Networking Sites for Mothers

Contemporary mothers use social networking sites to seek information, compare themselves to other mothers, assess their performance, and express emotions. This content analysis explores and compares popular sites for mothers – forums, blogs, and Facebook groups. Coders analyzed 984 posts and 1730 associated comments for topics, expressed emotions, and social comparison. Analysis showed that the most common topic of conversation was the role of the mother, which included expectations of motherhood. Further, mothers communicated horizontal and downward comparison with little upward comparison and expressed negative emotions more often with greater diversity than positive emotions. Finally, the platforms varied in function and emotional tenor. The discussion addresses the effective use of these sites.