Relating Dating Platforms and Social Anxiety

Abstract: The present study explores the correlational relationships between Social Anxiety, anxiety, depression, and stress, Subjective Online Success (SOS) and Dating Platforms classes ("quick-dating" and "full-commitment). Namely, this paper investigates: (1) whether using “full commitment” or “quick dating” dating platforms correlate with differences in , depression,anxiety, stress, and SOS; (2) whether gender influences SOS; (3) whether the class of datingplatforms influences SOS (4) the relationship between, depression, stress, anxiety, SOS andboth dating platforms (5) the relationship between SOS and social anxiety, depression, anxiety,stress, and gender. This exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted with 89 participants,which were gathered via convenience sampling. The data was analyzed with Pearson’scorrelation, independent t-tests, and simple mediation analysis by using the Hayes PROCESSextension for SPSS. Results show that Badoo users have higher scores in all the mental healthmeasures and SOS compared to Tinder users. Furthermore, there were no significantdifferences in SOS between genders, but there were significant differences in SOS betweendating platforms. Lastly, SOS mediated the relationship between relationship status anddepression, stress, and anxiety. These findings have implications for mental healthpractitioners, I.T., online dating companies, and dating platform users as they can betterunderstand the consequences of using dating platforms belonging to the two classes.