Social media use and adolescents' self-esteem: Heading for a person-specific media effects paradigm
Publication year
2021Number of pages
23 p.
Source
Journal of Communication, 71, 1, (2021), pp. 56-78ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

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Organization
SW OZ BSI ON
Journal title
Journal of Communication
Volume
vol. 71
Issue
iss. 1
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 56
Page end
p. 78
Subject
Social DevelopmentAbstract
Eighteen earlier studies have investigated the associations between social media use (SMU) and adolescents' self-esteem, finding weak effects and inconsistent results. A viable hypothesis for these mixed findings is that the effect of SMU differs from adolescent to adolescent. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a preregistered three-week experience sampling study among 387 adolescents (13-15 years, 54% girls). Each adolescent reported on his/her SMU and self-esteem six times per day (126 assessments per participant; 34,930 in total). Using a person-specific, N = 1 method of analysis (Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling), we found that the majority of adolescents (88%) experienced no or very small effects of SMU on self-esteem (-.10 < ß < .10), whereas 4% experienced positive (.10 <= ß <= .17) and 8% negative effects (-.21 <= ß <= -.10). Our results suggest that person-specific effects can no longer be ignored in future media effects theories and research
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [227864]
- Electronic publications [107344]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [28468]
- Open Access publications [76463]
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