Submission Date

7-19-2019

Document Type

Paper

Department

Psychology

Faculty Mentor

Terry Winegar

Comments

Presented during the 21st Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 19, 2019 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

This project extends previous research on social media and self-image and focuses on the developmental phase of emerging adulthood. We measured individuals’ reports of feeling of being in the emerging adult developmental period, their self-concept clarity and ethnic identity, and their use of social media for self-presentation and comparison with others. An online questionnaire was administered to participants who were in the age group of emerging adulthood (18-25 years). Results indicate that those who were in strong agreement that this was a time of experimentation and that this was a time of feeling “in-between” had greater clarity about their self-concept; that some aspects of social media use are related to some aspects of ethnic identity during emerging adulthood; and that some parameters of social media use are related to some dimensions of emerging adulthood. Results of this study provide further clarification about relations between social media use and the development of self-image during emerging adulthood.

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Open Access

Available to all.

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