Exploring the Negative Correlates of Online Exposure to Victimization and Former Friends in Adolescence

• In Event: 2-106 - #PeerProblems: Examining the Role of Social Media in Transforming Peer Experiences and Influencing Adolescent Adjustment

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Although the negative impact of peer victimization and negative friendship experiences is well understood (Prinstein & Giletta, 2016), a new theoretical framework suggests that social media transforms the effects of these negative peer experiences (Nesi et al., 2018). According to this framework, victimization or exposure to a former friend online, as opposed to in person, may be more robustly associated with indicators of negative adjustment. The following two studies aimed to test this hypothesis.

Study 1: Appearance is a primary concern among adolescents, and a frequent topic of peer victimization. To test whether victimization that occurs online would be more strongly associated with appearance- and eating-related outcomes than traditional victimization, a sample of 1,205 7th and 8th grade students from five middle schools in the northeast U.S. (11-14 years old; 51% girls; 51% non-Hispanic White) reported on their experiences with traditional victimization, online victimization, binge eating, dieting, body image satisfaction, and appearance-based teasing during the fall of 2016 (T1) and the spring of 2017 (T2). The path model, which adjusted for gender, body mass index standard scores (BMI-z), and T1 values of all outcomes, provided a good fit to the data, χ2(78)=260.74, p<.001; CFI=.98; TLI=.95; RMSEA=.03. As shown in Figure 1, more frequent social media-based victimization, but not traditional victimization, at T1 predicted more frequent binge eating, dieting, and appearance-based teasing at T2. Conversely, more frequent traditional victimization, but not social media-based victimization, at T1 predicted lower body image satisfaction at T2. Multiple group analyses indicated that there were no gender differences in any model parameters (ps>.05).

Study 2: Beyond direct victimization, another common, though understudied, negative peer experience in adolescence is the breakup of friendships. To test our hypothesis that continued exposure to a former friend on social media following a friendship dissolution would be associated with more negative reactions than continued exposure in a school setting, 354 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students (11-13 years old; 53% female; 82% non-Hispanic White) self-reported on their peer experiences and affective states using a Qualtrics survey. Results from regression analyses, controlling for gender and grade, revealed that continued exposure to a former friend on social media was significantly associated with experiencing more depressive symptoms (β=.18, p=.01), and stronger feelings of anger (β=.19, p=.01), sadness (β=.19, p<.01), stress (β=.15, p=.03), loneliness (β=.16, p=.02), and rumination (β=.18, p=.01) following the dissolution. Continued in-person exposure at school, however, was significantly associated with less sadness (β=-.19, p<.01) and loneliness (β=-.14, p=.03), and not significantly associated with other negative affective states.

Discussion: In the past, adolescents were generally able to escape negative peer experiences after leaving school. With the advent of social media, peer experiences such as victimization and continued exposure to former friends, have become inescapable. Both of the studies presented provide support for the transformation framework of social media (Nesi et al., 2018), such that characteristics of social media, including the visualness, permanence, publicness, and most importantly pervasiveness, create a context that has distinct negative correlates compared to in-person experiences.

Authors

• Kaitlin M Flannery, SUNY Cortland
  Presenting Author

• Anna Vannucci, Connecticut Children's Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christine McCauley Ohannessian, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katherine Bonafide, SUNY Cortland
  Non-Presenting Author