Assessing the relationship between Facebook interaction, communication overload, Facebook-contextualized self-evaluation, and Facebook-related subjective well-being: An exploratory analysis of social trust

The rapid growth of social media has transformed interpersonal communication, but evidence concerning its implications for users’ psychological well-being remains mixed. Drawing on a stressor-strain and cognitive-appraisal perspective, this study examines associations among behavioral exposure (Facebook interaction), perceived communication demands (communication overload), Facebook-contextualized self-evaluation, and Facebook-related subjective well-being. Social trust was examined separately through post hoc composite-score interaction analyses rather than as part of the confirmatory latent-variable model. An online survey was conducted among active Facebook users in major Vietnamese cities between June and October 2023. Of 300 submissions, 256 were retained for demographic description, and the finalized item-level dataset contained 247 listwise-complete cases for CFA and SEM. The four-factor measurement model showed acceptable fit (χ 2 /df = 2.306, CFI = .932, TLI = .923, RMSEA = .073). Facebook interaction was positively associated with communication overload and Facebook-contextualized self-evaluation, whereas its direct association with Facebook-related subjective well-being was not significant. Communication overload was positively, rather than negatively, associated with Facebook-contextualized self-evaluation and had no significant direct association with Facebook-related subjective well-being. Facebook-contextualized self-evaluation was positively associated with Facebook-related subjective well-being. Bootstrap analysis identified significant model-implied indirect associations, but these estimates decompose concurrent covariance and do not establish temporal mediation or a psychological transmission sequence. The unexpected positive communication-overload-to-self-evaluation coefficient is therefore treated as a nomological-validity concern rather than evidence that overload is beneficial. The post hoc social-trust interaction coefficients are reported only as exploratory signals because social trust was not psychometrically integrated into the CFA/SEM and the available output did not provide conditional effects, simple slopes, or confidence intervals. The study contributes an associational account of Facebook-specific experiences while delimiting both the measured constructs and the inferences supported by cross-sectional data.