Social media social cues are the tools and metrics used on social media websites to facilitate social interaction. They are a virtual form of the social cues which are used in aceto-face interactions (Baym, 2015; Tanis & Postmes, 2003). There is evidence that some individuals tend to place importance on these social media social cues and they often have an impact on cognitive outcomes (Tiggemann & Barbato, 2018). However, there is no known existing instrument which measures the importance that individual’s place on these social media social cues. Additionally, there is little known about how this importance placed may impact specific mental health outcomes. Therefore, the main aims of the current study were to address these gaps in the literature by developing and validating the Social media social cues questionnaire (SMSCQ) as well as investigating its relationship with anxiety and psychological distress. Principal components analysis was conducted on a sample of 124 participants on the initial 50-item instrument, revealing the underlying factor structure. Observation of the Scree plot and Item reduction procedures were then implemented, resulting in a final 23-item instrument with 6 factors. High levels of internal consistency for both the instrument and each of its factors was found. Test-retest reliability was also moderate. The instrument was deemed to have construct validity since significant positive correlations were found between; the SMSCQ and the Problematic mobile phone use scale (MPPUS; Bianchi & Phillips, 2005), between some of the SMSCQ factors and the MPPUS and the matched SMSCQ factors and Social reward questionnaire subscales (SRQ; Foulkes et al., 2014). No significant associations were found with the Generalised anxiety and Psychological distress measures. Additional characteristics of the SMSCQ and its utility in identifying potential behavioural outcomes are discussed. Suggestions for future research are made.
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