On the one hand, the controversial effects of social media may be due to the different influencing mechanisms. A few studies have even suggested that social media use is not related, positively or negatively, to one’s psychosocial outcomes (e.g., ). Other empirical studies, however, have revealed that an individual’s interactions with social media are related to increased feelings of depression, loneliness, and stress (e.g., ). For instance, some studies have demonstrated that social media use is conducive to an individual’s social networking and the development of social capital as well as psychological well-being (e.g., ). Previous researchers have already investigated the impact of social media on a user’s social capital and personal well-being, though with mixed results. The diverse modes provide users with more opportunities not only to fortify their existing ties with family and close friends (associated with bonding social capital) but also to extend their social networks, connecting weak ties with geographically dispersed acquaintances and strangers (associated with bridging social capital). With the enhanced functionality of smartphones, users increasingly strengthen their relationships and build new connections by interacting on mobile social media via various communication modes, including text messages, audio messages, and photographs. By providing robust findings by adopting the variable-centered approach in a health context, the findings of this study are promising for the extension and theoretical development of mobile social media research in the context of health information engagement. This is likely to be the first study that examines the mediating roles of bonding and bridging social capital on the relationship between users’ health information engagement and users’ psychological well-being. The findings shed new light on directions for leveraging mobile social media as an alternative means to bring about improvements in well-being in mobile-phone-saturated China. Moreover, both bonding and bridging capital mediated the relationship between WeChat affordances and psychological well-being. These two forms of social capital were also positively associated with users’ psychological well-being, though bridging capital exerted more power in our research model. The results revealed that users’ liking, sharing, and commenting behaviors were positively related to the bonding and bridging capital accumulated on WeChat. Bootstrapping methods were used to examine mediation effects. Structural equation modeling using the maximum likelihood of estimation was employed to test the study’s hypothesized model. An online survey was conducted with 522 WeChat users in China. This study aims to examine how the users’ engagement with health information benefits their well-being and to demonstrate the underlying mechanism of the relationships through bonding and bridging social capital.
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