Adolescents' profiles of problematic Facebook use and associations with developmental variables

Abstract

Facebook plays an important role in the lives of adolescents, but little is known about how they use this tool and how inter-individual variation may be related to psychological variables. Our goal is to search for different profiles of Facebook use and analyze how these profiles are differentially associated with developmental variables. Participants were 761 adolescents (54% girls) between 14 and 18 years old (M = 15.98, SD = 1.08). To create the profiles we used combinatory cluster analysis. Multivariate analyses of variance as a function of the clusters were performed with: personality, parental attachment, peer alienation and interpersonal competence. We found four different clusters of Facebook use that presented differences across the psychological and developmental variables as well as in the time spent on Facebook. Results evidenced an association between a more problematic Facebook use and a lack of interpersonal competence offline, in terms of the ability to provide emotional support and to manage conflicts. Adolescents with a more problematic Facebook use reported higher alienation to peers, lower levels of emotional stability and lower levels of openness to experience. Discussion will highlight the developmental context of more and less adaptive ways of using Facebook.