Living Alone but Not Feeling Lonely: The Effect of Self-Concealment on Perceived Social Support of Youth Living Alone in China

The current study explored the mechanism of self-concealment on perceived social support among youth living alone and tried to clarify the two mediating variables, which are “psychological needs met through internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”, by using the Self-Concealment Scale, the Psychological Needs met through Internet Gratification Scale, the Texas Social Behavior Inventory and the Perceived Social Support Scale. Four hundred thirty-three working youth living alone who have lived alone or shared no emotional intersection with others were chosen as participants in this study. The results showed that: (1) the correlation between self-concealment, perceived social support, psychological needs met via internet gratification and social self-esteem was significant; (2) self-concealment positively predicted perceived social support; (3) self-concealment indirectly predicted perceived social support through the chain mediating effect of “psychological needs met via internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”. These results indicated that the self-concealment of youth living alone had a predictive effect on the perceived social support. The mechanisms of this effect included the direct effect of self-concealment and indirect effect through “psychological needs met via internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”.