Prevalence of Online Social Comparison among Undergraduate University Students in Abia State, Nigeria

Online social comparison pertains to the process of individuals assessing themselves by comparing their appearance, opinion or abilities with those of others via social media platforms. This pervasive phenomenon has implications on the self-perception of university students. This study therefore examined the prevalence of online social comparison among undergraduate students in selected universities in Abia State, Nigeria. Grounded on the social comparison theory of Leon Festinger and self-concept theory of Carl Rogers, the study used a descriptive survey design with a target population of 15, 915 undergraduate university students. The adapted Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) with a reliability score of (α.78) was used. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25, while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that more than half of the participants (56.6%) had moderate prevalence of online social comparison, while a minority (24.5%) recorded a low prevalence. A smaller proportion of students (18.9%) showed high levels of online social comparison, potentially indicating vulnerability to its effects. The overall average of social comparison dimensions is 2.46 (SD = 0.583). The study therefore recommends that universities should actively promote counseling services to encourage students to seek help and promote healthy online behaviors.