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The mediating role of perceived social support between gender and social media use.

Neumann, C.M. (2018) The mediating role of perceived social support between gender and social media use.

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Abstract:During the last decade, Social media developed to the most used online activity for adolescents. Social support has been identified as an important reason to use social media. Whereas most studies have explored online social support, literature also suggested offline, or so-called in-person social support as a possible correlator, as well as gender. The aim of this study was to investigate whether perceived social support mediates the relationship between gender and social media use. Using a cross-sectional online survey-based design, the associative relationship between gender, perceived social support and social media use was examined. A sample of 265 participants completed the survey that included items from the Multiple Scale of Perceived Social support (MSPSS) and another self-constructed questionnaire for social media use. The results indicated no statistically significant mediation of perceived social support in relationship between gender and social media use. However, it was found that gender correlates significantly with both perceived social support and social media use. It could be concluded that women are more likely to use social media and were found to perceive their social support to be higher. The study’s results indicate a need for further research of the role of social support in the context of social media use to explore how those variables are related.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/75193
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