Longitudinal Associations of Passive and Active Social Media Use with Self-Esteem in Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Introduction
Studies have increasingly examined the association between social media use and well-being, such as self-esteem, with largely discrepant findings (Pantic, 2014). While some studies found that high levels of social media use were linked to low self-esteem (Vogel et al. 2014; Woods & Scott 2016), others showed the opposite pattern (Steinfield et al., 2008; Valkenburg et al., 2017) and some reported no association (Skues et al., 2012). In addition, few studies investigated such associations longitudinally in adolescents. As a result, the direction of the association between social media use and adolescents’ self-esteem is unclear.
Inconsistent findings may be due to how social media use has been operationalized in previous studies. Researchers have recently begun to distinguish passive from active social media use (Joseph et al., 2019). Passive use refers to looking at what others have posted/shared, whereas active use refers to posting, commenting and sharing one’s own content (Escobar-Viera et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2018). Yet, little is known about the potentially different associations between these two types of use and self-esteem. Although Frison and Eggermont (2016) showed that the associations between passive and active social media use with well-being differed by sex, no studies have examined whether sex moderates associations between social media use and self-esteem.
The objective of this study was to examine longitudinal associations (over 1 year) between adolescents’ passive and active social media use and self-esteem and whether associations are moderated by sex.
Methodology
A sample of 238 adolescents (122 boys) completed an online questionnaire and three daily diaries of social media use (all within a week with at least one during the weekend) at age 13 years (T1) and repeated one year later at age 14 years (T2).
In the diaries, adolescents reported the intensity of their active and passive social media use in the last 24 hours. The Self Perception Profile for Adolescents (Harter, 2012) was administered to assess self-esteem.
A saturated cross-lagged path model was conducted to examine longitudinal associations between active and passive social media use with self-esteem, controlling for sex. Moderation by sex was tested.
Results
Girls reported higher levels of passive and active social media use (p<.05). The cross-lagged model is summarized in Figure 1. Autocorrelations were significant for each variable (p<.01). Concurrent correlations between active and passive social media use were negative and significant at T1 and T2 (p<.01). The cross-lagged associations between T1 self-esteem and T2 passive and active social media use revealed a statistical trend (p<.10). Specifically, low levels of self-esteem at T1 were marginally linked to lower levels of passive use (β=.148, p=.053) and higher levels of active use (β=-.135, p=.062) at T2. None of the associations was moderated by sex.
Conclusion
Results indicate that self-esteem predicts later social media use, but not the reverse. This association also differed for passive and active use. Specifically, lower self-esteem at T1 marginally predicted higher active use, but lower passive use at T2. Further longitudinal studies are needed to explain possible mechanisms underlying these different associations.

Authors

• Marie-Pier Gingras, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
  Presenting Author

• Mara Brendgen, L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sylvana M Côté, Université de Montréal (UdeM)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Miriam Helen Beauchamp, Université de Montréal (UdeM)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean Richard Seguin, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine M Herba, Université du Québec à Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author