Understanding what drives adolescent social media behaviours: Informing approaches for interventions

Abstract

While much research has explored the impacts of social media use, less is known about what factors drive use. The present study examined the relationships between potential drivers of social media use; namely social media literacy, motivations, and internalisation of appearance ideals, and determined whether they work in combination or individually to predict a range of social media uses and behaviours over time, including intensity, frequency, exposure to fitness and celebrity content, photo editing, appearance comparisons, and types of use. Australian adolescent girls (n = 704) and boys (n = 938) aged 11–16 years completed online surveys at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were performed separately by gender. Results revealed weak associations between drivers and found they uniquely contributed to social media behaviours, though this was dependent on use outcome. Thin- and muscular-internalisation were related to some appearance-focused use (e.g., comparisons, following celebrity and fitness accounts) among girls and boys, respectively. Critical thinking was associated with lower Snapchat use among boys and motivations were related to intensity and type of use (i.e., viewing, posting). These findings suggest multicomponent holistic interventions targeting numerous drivers may be most appropriate in modifying social media behaviours among adolescents.