Maartje Boer

SMU AND MENTAL HEALTH 159 6 therefore expected that poorer mental health would increase SMU problems through upward social comparisons, cybervictimization, decreased face-to- face-contact, and decreased school achievements. Figure 6.1 Path Diagram of Hypothesized Direct and Indirect Associations Notes. The double-headed arrows denote that associations were examined bidirectionally. Solid arrows indicate the expected significant associations. Dashed arrows indicate that no associations were expected. Diagram A displays the hypothesized direct effects. Diagram B displays the hypothesized mediations. Current Study Using three waves of longitudinal data among Dutch adolescents in their first two years of secondary school, the present study examined bidirectional associations between adolescents’ SMU intensity as well as SMU problems and mental health. In this study, mental health was defined by the presence of wellbeing as well as the absence of mental illnesses (Herrman et al., 2005). We therefore focused on two aspects of mental health: the presence of life satisfaction and the absence of depressive symptoms. Based on recent findings that refute the alleged negative link between SMU intensity andmental health and because high SMU intensity is considered normative in adolescence, we expected that SMU intensity would be unrelated to mental health in any