Date Approved

6-9-2017

Embargo Period

6-12-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA School Psychology

Department

Psychology

College

College of Science & Mathematics

Advisor

DiHoff, Roberta

Keywords

media, self-esteem, social media, teenager

Subject(s)

Self-esteem in adolescence; High school students--Social networks

Disciplines

School Psychology

Abstract

Social media has made it incredibly easy to connect the world. One can check Twitter and see what their favorite celebrity is up to, log onto Facebook to find out when a friend's birthday is, or use Instagram to advertise a new business. However, is social media doing more harm than good? The purpose of this study was to conclude if there is a relationship between social media and self-esteem, especially among teenagers. 130 participants from two high schools completed two different surveys: one to assess their social media use and the second to measure their self-esteem. Each social media variable and the participant's self-esteem score were utilized to run correlational tests; two variables were found to be significant when using all 130 participants. The participants who did not have social media were excluded for the second data set and four variables were found to be significant against self-esteem scores including if the participants were bothered if they did not receive as many likes as they thought they were going to on their posts, the amount of likes on their last selfie, the amount of likes they usually receive on their selfies, and the amount of time the participants waited to check social media after they posted something. The conclusion of the current study is that a relationship exists between social media and self-esteem.

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