Use of social media has quickly become part of everyday life, particularly for those who grew up in this age of technology. Although some research has examined social media use and its relationship to wellbeing, many studies have not accounted for the multifaceted nature of social media nor controlled potentially confounding variables. The current study focused on the relations of the intensity and purposes of social media use with sense of belonging and psychological wellbeing. The primary hypotheses addressed whether the intensity and purposes of social media use are associated with: (a) sense of belonging, and (b) psychological wellbeing. Participants were 298 undergraduate students. They completed an online questionnaire measuring intensity and purposes of social media use with the Gravitation Toward Facebook Scale (GoToFB) and the Multidimensional Facebook Intensity Scale (MFIS). The questionnaire also contained the Sense of Belonging Instrument – Psychological State (SOBI-P) and Ryff’s Psychological Wellbeing Scale. In addition, a brief researcher-developed measure of face-to-face interaction was included to investigate the relationship between face-to-face interaction and intensity and purposes of social media use. The results largely did not support the hypotheses that the intensity and purposes of social media use would be associated with sense of belonging and psychological wellbeing. Multiple regression analyses revealed Expression (t = -2.13, p = .034) and Learning (t = 1.97, p = .049) of the GoToFB scale made significant, unique contributions to psychological wellbeing when gender, social desirability, self-esteem, and the Big 5 personality traits were controlled, but not when sense of belonging was also controlled (both ps = .11). Sense of belonging accounted for significant variance in psychological wellbeing, even controlling for all other variables. Regarding bivariate relationships: the Learning subscale of the GoToFB scale was positively correlated with psychological wellbeing. Additionally, the Monitoring subscale of GoToFB and the Persistence and Overuse subscales of the MFIS were negatively correlated with both sense of belonging and psychological wellbeing. Finally, significant relationships were found between different purposes or intensity of social media use and personality traits and face-to-face interaction. Implications for school and clinical psychology are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
School Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_9009
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (viii, 70 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Psy.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Social media--Psychological aspects
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Albert Sultan
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001800001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.