Spinning the social-web of jealousy: A dyadic analysis on attachment and social media jealousy

This study examines the actor and partner effects of attachment styles on social media jealousy, and the moderation effect of attachment behaviors on this association with a Turkish sample of romantic couples. While existing literature recognizes the relationship between attachment styles and social media jealousy, the moderating role of attachment behaviors has not been previously explored. The sample of the current study included 81 Turkish couples who were recruited through social media, personal networks, and mailing lists and filled out the online surveys on Qualtrics. The data were analyzed with the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) using MPlus Version 8.11, and Actor-Partner Interdependence Moderation Model (APIMoM) through the APIMoM Shiny app developed by David A. Kenny. Our findings showed positive actor effects of both attachment anxiety and avoidance on social media jealousy. While the positive effect of attachment anxiety was expected, the positive effect of attachment avoidance has been observed only in Turkish samples in previous research, similar to our findings. Moreover, we found a significant moderation effect of partner’s attachment behaviors on the association between attachment anxiety and social media jealousy, indicating a buffering effect of partner’s attachment behaviors. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed.