Effects of Social Media Use on Adolescents' Digital Reading Literacy: Mediating Role of Self-Regulated Learning

• In Event: Digital Literacy and Literacy Instruction

Abstract

This study explored how use of social media (SM) impacted adolescents’ digital reading literacy (DRL), and whether their relationship was mediated by self-regulated learning: i.e., knowledge of metacognitive strategies, enjoyment of reading, and reading self-concept. Mediation models with multiple mediators were tested with a sample of data pertaining to 105,430 15-year-old students from 3,693 schools across fifteen developed countries/regions that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. Results indicated that frequent SM use did not have any direct adverse impacts on adolescents’ DRL; and indeed, small positive effects were observed. The relationship between SM use and DRL was positively mediated by knowledge of metacognitive strategies and reading self-concept, but not mediated by enjoyment of reading.

Authors

• Jiangping Chen, University of Hong Kong

• Chin-Hsi Lin, University of Hong Kong

• Gaowei Chen, University of Hong Kong