Parents’ social comparisons on social networking sites (SNS) is a research area of growing interest. In this study, weexamined parents’ positive and negative feelings when comparing with other parents and associations with self-reporteddistress (i.e., stress and depression) and self-efficacy. We used a sample of 422 Swedish parents of children below the age offive (Mage = 1.29 years). In a first step, we examined construct validity of two new measures on parents’ positive andnegative feelings when doing comparisons on SNS. In a second step, we examined associations with self-reported parenting.

Results showed that parents reported more positive feelings than negative feelings in relation to other parents on SNS.Further, negative feelings when doing social comparisons were linked to more distress and lower level of self-efficacy,whereas positive feelings when doing social comparisons predicted higher level of self-efficacy, but not distress. Theseresults suggest that negative feelings are related to lower actual levels of distress and self-efficacy, but positive feelings canhave an instant positive effect on parents’ perceived competence, but not on their well-being. Practitioners can encourageparents to reflect on who they compare with on SNS and why, as it might enable evaluations that could lead to selfimprovement rather than weakening of oneself as a parent.