- Title
- Parents’ perceptions of the impact of social media use on adolescent identity formation and safety
- Creator
- Rochér, Stefné Elana
- Subject
- Identity (Psychology) in adolescence
- Subject
- Parent and teenager -- Safety measures
- Subject
- Online social networks -- Safety measures
- Date Issued
- 2021-04
- Date
- 2021-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/51883
- Identifier
- vital:43381
- Description
- Traditionally, parents were able to protect, monitor, guide, and support adolescents within the microsystem. However, in a society where the technosystemic digital world has entered microsystemic parent-adolescent interactions and the developmental process of adolescents’ identity formation, it is crucial to understand how parents experience and perceive the role that social media plays in their adolescent children’s identity development and safety. The primary aim of this study is to understand parents’ perceptions and experiences of social media use in adolescent identity formation and safety. The researcher utilised a qualitative research approach with an exploratory descriptive design. A non-probability purposive sample was employed, and telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants. All of the participants were parents of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. Interviews were conducted until data saturation was reached. The participants’ responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Four categories arose from the data analysis and demonstrate that social media was perceived to have both a helpful and unhelpful impact on adolescents’ identity formation and safety. The first category refers to the perceived role social media plays in adolescents’ development of physical, gender, sexual, and social identity. The permanence of social media, the role parent-adolescent relationships play in adolescents’ online identity experiences, and identity commitment and exploration maturity emerged as key themes. The second category of key findings associated with social media and adolescents’ safety include social media violations, the mental health of adolescents, emotional regulation, identity formation, and reality illusion as themes that emerged from the data. The third category encompasses the resources that parents perceive to be of assistance in maintaining and enhancing safe social media use among adolescents, namely parent-adolescent relationships, remaining educated, and adjusting monitoring in a developmentally appropriate manner. The fourth category refers to a network of resources that parents apply to maintain and increase safe social media use by their adolescent children. Limitations of the study, recommendations for future research studies, and recommendations to support parents are discussed and described.
- Description
- Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- Format
- 1 online resource (xi, 232 pages)
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
NMU School of Behavioural Sciences
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Rocher, SE.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |