Self-Esteem Research Paper Example

Introduction

The changing standards of beauty have much to deal with the culture that a person is born into and what societal standards of beauty are expected to be met. This quasi experimental study aims to seek out the effects of excessive social media use between adolescent girls and how it may contribute to their sense of self worth. That is to say that adolescents who self-report an excessive amount of social media, will have a lower overall self-esteem than those who report a minimal or normal amount of exposure. The independent variable in this study is the self-reported time spent on social media. It is hypothesized to have such a detrimental effect on adolescents from previous research.  Self-esteem would be observed in this within-subject study as it is measuring the effects on the same group of subjects. 

For example, a recent study gauged how social media sites such as Instagram, can be extremely damaging to younger women and their relationship with body image. Those who compared their bodies with those of instagram influencers, reported feeling less confident about themselves. The other group was shown a neutral body and reported feeling the same amount of confidence as before. (McComb & Mills, 2021). Another study measured female undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of three study conditions: taking and posting an untouched selfie, preferred and retouched selfie, or control group (Mills et al., 2018). Mood and body image were assessed both before and after the change. The experimental condition had a significant effect on mood swings and emotions of physical attractiveness, as predicted. In comparison to the control group, women who took and uploaded images on social media reported feeling more anxious, less confident, and less physically beautiful thereafter. Even when people were able to retake and change their selfies, it was shown that they had negative impacts.

Previous studies have shown that social media can be detrimental to mental health, but the age group of participants have varied. A study by Andreassan et al. showed that out of the wide demographic used, the most afflicted by social media and a lower self-esteem, were women. Their findings suggested that women were more at risk for developing addictive behaviors to activities involving elements of social interaction (Anderssan et al., 2017). It is important to note that social media continuously reaches a younger and younger demographic. While studies on the relationship between male adolescent self-esteem and social media use is sparse, the primary goal of this study is to show how social media is particularly detrimental to  teen-aged girls. Even studies with ethnically diverse populations found that girls are more likely to experience gender-specific and developmental concerns propagated by social media (Impett at al., 2008).

 It is important to also take into account any extraneous variables that may not be accounted for in the experiment. Previous research indicated that the type of “feed” or photos that show up on a person’s social media can also have an effect on self-esteem. Frequent celebrity exposure on one’s feed can lead to a relationship between celebrity worship and negative body image (Brown & Tiggemman, 2016). This study is not taking into account the individual feed for each subject. An individual’s feed and preferred social media application will not be taken into account in the data. A study researching types of feeds and their relationships with body-image found that media ideals for appearance did not emerge as a significant moderator of the effects of exercise on self-esteem (Legrand et al., 2020). Including the preferred social media app for each subject would result in long convoluted results, which would ruin the simplistic nature of this study. While feed is not a measured variable, it will still be accounted for in the discussion and results section. The aim of this observational study is to see if excessive social media use and negative self-esteem have a positive relationship, not how self-esteem is impacted by individual types of feed. The results of the effects of social media on self-esteem study hopes to see a positive relationship between the two and bridge a knowledge gap of sociocultural psychology and gender psychology, as well as open the door to further treatment of mental health afflicted by social media.

Methods 

This quasi-experimental study would be divided into three specific groups. The first group are those who report minimal time spent on social media, which is 0 to 3 hours.. The second group is 3 to 6 hours. The third is those who self-report 6+ hours. This questionnaire would then split the subjects into three groups: those who report heavy media use, those who report frequent media use, and those who report minimal media use. The three groups will then be given a self-esteem questionnaire to evaluate their self-worth compared to societal beauty standards. Within subjects is the design of this study, since each group is being exposed to the same variables. 

The sample size consists of 250 adolescent girls (ages 13-15) from all areas of the United States. Each subject would be screened to make sure there is parental consent and debriefing of the findings will occur as well. It is important to use a survey in this first portion of research, as it encourages honesty and would prevent bias between subject and researcher. Surveys have been used to study self-esteem before. One used surveys and found that  social media activity contributed to loneliness, FOMO, and parental reports of mental health issues such as hyperactivity/impulsivity, anxiety, and depression (Rajamohan et al., 2019). The self esteem survey used is the Teen Self-Esteem Scale. The survey will be taken on a computer and results will be calculated. Another study used surveys on a similar sample of pre-teen girls, which resulted in the implication that society jeopardizes girls’ ability to grow into responsible citizens (Webb and McCormick, 2014). With the results of the study complete, it is then possible to focus on mental health and social media reform. Previous studies view social media use and online patient behavior to be examined as part of good health and mental care (Terrasse et al., 2019). 

Results

The statistical analysis done on this experiment is a one-way analysis of covariance. This test was run on self-esteem scores, accounting for age, self-awareness, and most importantly social comparison (Clay et al., 2005). These results are closely related to this study's anticipated results. They took into account several factors that were not accounted for in this study. The ANCOVA for each experimental condition differed significantly. This is assumed to have the same effect as our population baseline, as the medial models showed drastic effect on the subjects at hand. The same is to be anticipated for social media exposure and self-esteem.

Discussion

The implications of this finding show that the more exposure to social media an individual has, the more likely they are to have a low self-esteem score. The nature of the variables coexist in a way that shows a positive relationship. This study allows a door to open on research for amount of time on social media and the level of self-esteem in adolescent females. These findings could apply to the field of Social Psychology, as well as sociology. It could be the basis of a much larger and meticulous study to see if social media is beneficial and for what age it seems to fit best. Treatment to social media addiction, as well as self-esteem related disorders are affected by the variables in this research study. As stated before, social media’s impact on male has yet to be thoroughly studied. Seeing findings on an experiment where both male and female groups are observed could further open a door for studying social media and its impact on a developing human psyche. The findings of the study do not measure the long term effects of social media, but perhaps can open a door for such longitudinal studies to be conducted. Giving adolescents tools to deconstruct the societal standards of beauty they encounter may be more effective in the long run. Psycho-educational interventions with a concentration on presenting and promoting a more accepting perspective towards toxic beauty standards could prevent damaging social comparison and lowered self-esteem.