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

Background: Sympathy-seeking negative online self-disclosure, or “sadfishing,” has proliferated in social media. This study investigates sadfishing by developing and validating a brief self-report questionnaire of the construct and exploring potential psychological correlates. 

Methods: A total of 345 Iranian adolescent social media users (M_age = 16.29, SD_age = 1.52) participated in the study. Participants completed the newly constructed Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire, in addition to measures of anxiety, depression, attention seeking, perceived social support, and social media use integration. 

Results: Factor analyses revealed a unidimensional structure of the 5-item Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire. The questionnaire yielded sound construct validity and internal consistency. Anxiety, depression, and attention seeking were positively associated with sadfishing, while perceived social support from family and friends was negatively associated with sadfishing. Negative online reactions to sadfishing were rare. Boys reported higher sadfishing tendencies than girls at age 12; however, sadfishing in boys declined at a higher rate than in girls with age. 

Conclusions: The findings suggest that negative affect and attention seeking, combined with feelings of low social support, can be associated with adolescent sadfishing on social media. The quantitative results shed new light on the contribution of psychosocial factors to sadfishing.