Study Variables
The area of concern is the connection between adolescents’ experiences with victimization and their use of social media. During their formative years, adolescents are vulnerable to various forms of victimization, including online abuse, bullying, and harassment. Understanding the potential role of social media in shaping adolescents’ experiences of victimization has become a topic of significant interest and research due to the widespread adoption of social media among this age group.
The independent variable in this study is social media utilization, which includes the frequency, duration, and activities people engage in via social media pages. Posting, liking, commenting, sharing, and overall time spent on social media platforms are all included. On the other hand, the victimization of adolescents is the dependent variable. It involves experiences of peers or other individuals engaging in harmful behaviors, both online and offline.
Literature Discussion
The revolution brought about by social networks is undeniable. Still, paradoxically, the negative aspects of this new way of relating are also evident. In the case of children and adolescents, this is even more significant. Studies around the world point to a mental health crisis anchored in young people’s relationships with social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
According to Twenge et al. (2019), Social media has changed how young people interact and form their crowds and cliques. Twenge et al. (2019) clarified that the mental health of teenagers around the world has deteriorated considerably since 2010, coinciding with the rise of social media. A significant increase in mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, was noticed, which could be a reason for changes in interaction levels. Social media usage has integrated into people’s lives, especially young people. A recent report by Craig et al. (2020) found that children and young people between the ages of 6 and 17 are already heavy users of social networks with visible social behavior changes. Such prevalence shows that adolescents have been psychosocially affected by social media.
There are several psychological explanations for why teenagers are more susceptible to the harmful effects of social media. According to Dowdell et al. (2022), the brain’s immaturity and the propensity to copy behaviors are among the factors identified by different studies. Adolescence is even more vulnerable because it is a time of identity construction when the search for a sense of belonging is even greater.
With an increasing presence online, behavioral changes and cognitive and emotional consequences also become more serious, leading to problems related to attention, depression, and anxiety. The study aims to understand the relationship between social media usage and adolescent victimization. It will present the hypothesis, the methods used to collect data, and the results. The results will then be discussed, which will be used to draw conclusions and recommendations for future studies.
Hypotheses
Adolescents’ interactions, even before the emergence of social media, were sources of aggressive behaviors that led to victimization. It is easy to see how easily tempers flare in online discussions (Parris et al., 2022). Physical distancing and the possibility of anonymity facilitate extremism, which could increase the rate of adolescents’ victimization. Waters et al.’s (2020) study concluded that violent radicals use the internet to attract people, disseminate content, and open a channel for dialogue with young people. According to Waters et al. (2020), online platforms do not cause violent behavior but facilitate radicalization, a crowd-formation process. Thus, further study must be expanded to understand how social media relates to victimization among adolescents. The following are the null and alternative hypotheses for the study.
H0: Increased use of social media is not associated with higher levels of adolescents’ victimization.
Methods
Design
The design of this study will be correlational. The purpose of correlational research is to investigate the relationship between two or more variables without altering any of the variables. For this situation, the study will investigate the relationship between online entertainment utilization and youths’ exploitation encounters.
The use of social media as the independent variable will be continuous. It quantitatively assesses the frequency, duration, and activities on social media platforms. The dependent variable, adolescents’ experiences with victimization, is categorical because it involves determining whether or not there have been victimization incidents.
Participants
This study’s participants will comprise teenagers between 12 and 19 years of age. The sample will be drawn from various schools or communities to ensure a diverse representation of adolescents from diverse backgrounds. An equal number of men and women will be recruited to ensure gender balance in the sample.
For instance, the sample might be split 50/50 between men and women. This gender balance aids in generalizing the findings across genders and investigating potential gender differences in the connection between victimization experiences and social media use. The inclusion criteria for the study will include age (12-19) and the use of social media. The participant’s ethnic background will not be a factor, but the sample will be randomly selected; therefore, all backgrounds are viable.
Procedure
The first step of the study is participant selection and recruitment for those who meet the inclusion criteria. The study’s purpose, potential risks and benefits, confidentiality, and participant rights are all explained in detail to participants and their parents or legal guardians. Participants complete questionnaires about how they use social media. It includes measuring how often and how long people use social media, which platforms they use, and what activities they do (like posting, liking, and commenting).
Members answer measures surveying their encounters of exploitation, both online and offline. The frequency and severity of various forms of victimization, such as bullying, harassment, cyberbullying, and online abuse, are captured by these measures. The collected data are subjected to appropriate statistical analysis, such as correlation analysis, to investigate the link between teenagers’ experiences of victimization and their social media use.
Measures
The independent variable will include a quantitative measure of the frequency and duration of time a respondent spends on social media. It is continuous data, which means it can take any value. The frequency will be measured by how often the respondent logs in to any social media platform. In contrast, the duration will be measured by how many hours the respondent spends. The data is expected to have various numeric values, such that if a respondent spends two hours on social media, it will be recorded as two.
The dependent variable is victimization, which will be categorical, basing the respondent’s views on a pre-identified scale. Linkert will be used in the process, presenting the level of victimization in which the respondents are engaged. According to Yusof et al. (2019), the Likert Scale is a crucial method in psychological studies as it captures the attitudes and views of research respondents at different levels.
The categorical variable of victimization experiences can have multiple levels, from zero to various degrees of victimization. The terms “no victimization,” “mild victimization,” “moderate victimization,” and “severe victimization” may be used to describe these levels. The particular classification will rely upon the estimation instrument or scale used to survey the youths’ victimization experiences.
References
Craig, W., Boniel-Nissim, M., King, N., Walsh, S. D., Boer, M., Donnelly, P. D., & Pickett, W. (2020). Social media use and cyber-bullying: A cross-national analysis of young people in 42 countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), S100-S108. Web.
Dowdell, E. B., Freitas, E., Owens, A., & Greenle, M. M. (2022). Patterns of adverse childhood experiences, bullying, and social media. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. Journal of Personal Relationships, 41(7), 192-219. Web.
Parris, L., Lannin, D. G., Hynes, K., & Yazedjian, A. (2022). Exploring social media rumination: associations with bullying, cyberbullying, and distress. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(5-6), 3041-3061. Web.
Twenge, J. M., Spitzberg, B. H., & Campbell, W. K. (2019). Less in-person social interaction with peers among US adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(6), 1892-1913. Web.
Waters, S., Russell, W. B., & Hensley, M. (2020). Cyber bullying, social media, and character education: why it matters for middle school social studies. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 93(4), 195-204. Web.
Yusof, N. A. D. M., Jamil, P. A. S. M., Hashim, N. M., Karuppiah, K., Rasdi, I., Tamrin, S. B. M., & Sambasivam, S. (2019). Likert Scale vs. Visual analogue scale on vehicle seat discomfort questionnaire: a review. Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 15(204), 231-256. Web.