Date Approved

5-7-2008

Embargo Period

3-23-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in School Psychology

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Epifanio, Frank

Committee Member 1

Dihoff, Roberta

Subject(s)

Self-esteem in adolescence; Social networks

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the popular friend-networking site, MySpace on young adolescents' global self-esteem. The hypothesis of the present study states that adolescents who spend more time on the friend-networking site, MySpace, will experience lower overall self-esteem than their peers who spend either less time on the site, or no time on the site. Further, predictions were made on the basis of gender, suggesting that adolescent girls with adequate access will be more likely to experience these affects than will their male counterparts. Participants in this study were 95 (31 males, 64 females) seventh and eighth grade students from two middle class, suburban communities. The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (SES) was administered to all participants to measure global self-esteem. A Two-Way between-subjects ANOVA was performed to determine the results of the study. The results revealed that there was no significant relationship between participants' MySpace use and their self-esteem. These results suggest that the amount of time adolescents spend on MySpace does not directly affect their global self-esteem. Results also revealed no differences between genders, suggesting that in the sample population of this study, males and females view themselves in relatively the same way.

Download

Share

COinS