Adolescent sadfishing on social media: anxiety, depression, attention seeking, and lack of perceived social support as potential contributors

Table 1 Exploratory factor analysis of items in the Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire (n = 172)

Item	MR1	MR2	h ²	M	SD
1. I share my painful experiences on social media to generate sympathy.	-0.01	0.9	0.8	0.2	-0.01
2. Social media provides an outlet for me to express my life challenges in a supportive environment to gain support.	0.07	0.56	0.37	0.63	0.07
3. I post my emotional pain on social media to get support from others.	0.72	0.07	0.59	0.41	0.72
4. Social media is an outlet to share my bad experiences for gaining sympathy.	0.41	0.25	0.36	0.64	0.41
5. I seek compassion by posting my negative emotions on social media.	0.81	-0.01	0.66	0.34	0.81
6. I share the concerns of my life on social media to gain positive attention.	0.86	-0.06	0.67	0.33	0.86
7. I display my complexities on social media to attract sympathetic reactions.	0.86	-0.01	0.73	0.27	0.86
8. Posting my painful experiences on social media helps me to relieve tension through attracting sympathetic reactions.	0.63	0.06	0.45	0.55	0.63

Note.h²: communality (the amount of variance in the item/variable explained by the factor); M: mean; SD: standard deviation
Boldfaced items constitute the final, 5-item version of the Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire

ISSN: 2050-7283