Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Publication Date
Spring 5-15-2020
Journal
Undergraduate Honours Theses
Abstract
Social media’s adoption in society continues to increase, and past research has found significant relationships between social media use and anxiety in young adolescents. The current research focused solely on Snapchat, as it is currently one of the most popular platforms among adolescents; however, it is also one of the least researched. This research aimed to explore Active and Passive Snapchat Use as predictors of anxiety in adolescents over time. This study focused on what people are actually doing while using Snapchat rather than the amount of use. Adolescents (N = 105, 21.2% male and 78.8% female) from High Schools in Ontario, Canada in grade 9 to grade 12 completed an online survey, responding to questions about their anxiety levels and social media use, which included the developed Active and Passive Use measures. The same sample (N = 46, 15.6% male and 84.4% female) completed the survey again, 3 months later. It was hypothesized that participants who demonstrated higher frequencies of Active Snapchat Use at Time 1, would have decreased levels of anxiety at Time 2 (H1). It was also hypothesized that those who demonstrated higher frequencies of Passive Snapchat Use at Time 1, would have increased anxiety levels at Time 2 (H2). H1 and H2 were not supported, however, results indicated that higher frequencies of Active Snapchat Use at Time 1 predicted increased anxiety at Time 2. Results indicate the significance of different Snapchat-related behaviours on anxiety levels in adolescence. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Notes
Thesis Advisor(s): Tara Dumas (PhD), Christine Tsang (PhD)