Mid-Adolescents’ Social Media Use

Supporting and Suppressing Autonomy

Bibliographic Data

ID6432337
AuthorsMonique West (0000-0002-8955-8099, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia, corresponding author), Simon Rice (0000-0003-4045-8553, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia), Dianne Vella‐brodrick (0000-0002-4534-1998, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia)
Year2023
Volume40
Issue2
Pages448-482
Publication date2023-04-17
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Adolescent Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0743-5584 • E-ISSN: 1552-6895
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/07435584231168402
OpenAlexW4366089971
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited74

Autonomy development is an important process in adolescence and is central to a successful transition to adulthood. Social contexts play a crucial role in supporting and suppressing autonomy. Considering social media is a salient and important context for mid-adolescents it has the potential to strongly influence autonomy development. This study applied qualitative methods to examine mid-adolescents’ perspectives of how their social media use impacts autonomy. Participants included 36 students aged 15 years from four schools in Melbourne, Australia. All participants completed a rich picture mapping activity and focus group discussions, and a sub-sample of 11 adolescents participated in follow-up, one-on-one interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis generated two overarching themes; supporting autonomy and suppressing autonomy. Sub-themes included; promoting self-governance, facilitating choicefulness, developing a sense of self, external forces motivating use, fostering compulsive and non-intentional use, and affordances of social media threaten personal control. This study revealed that social media contributes to today’s adolescents encountering unique experiences with regard to their autonomy development compared with other generations. Findings highlighted the need to harness the autonomy-supportive aspects of social media use whilst mitigating the autonomy-suppressive ones to help mid-adolescents engage with social media in a way that promotes healthy functioning and wellbeing

Affordance · Autonomy · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Focus group · Political science · Qualitative research · Social media · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Child Development and Digital Technology · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Psychology

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