The Role of Social Media on Early Adolescents’ Social and Emotional Competence Abilities

Both popular opinion and research has reported the negative effects of social media on adolescents’ development. However, research has also demonstrated a positive relationship between social media use and adolescents’ social and emotional competence abilities. Less attention has focused on the role of social media features (e.g., emojis) and functions (e.g., deleting) in regard to American early adolescents’ social and emotional competence abilities (e.g., social awareness). The present study examined how early adolescents (10-14 years old) used social media features and functions as a way to facilitate their positive social interactions. Using an explanatory sequential design, the study used an online self-report survey and individual interviews to address two research questions: (a) is there a positive relationship between early adolescents’ use of social media features and functions and their social and emotional competence abilities?; and (b) how do early adolescents use the features and functions of social media to facilitate their positive social interactions? Ninety early adolescents (10-14 years old) completed the online self-report survey and 30 early adolescents who completed the online self-report survey were selected for individual interviews. Correlation analysis showed positive and significant relationships between early adolescents’ use of social media features and their social awareness scores. Constructivist grounded theory analysis revealed types of behaviors that early adolescents in the study practiced that facilitated their positive social interactions, such as selecting emojis. The integration of quantitative and qualitative results suggests that the types of behaviors early adolescents in the study performed displayed their abilities to take perspectives of others and interact with people from diverse backgrounds.