Development and Validation of the Social Media Self-Esteem Scale for Adolescents

Abstract

Development of the self is a vital aspect during the period of adolescence. Interaction with peers contributes to the development of various aspects of self. Due to the technological advances in today's times, adolescents interact with their peers through social media sites and portals. It is essential to study this development in light of the increasing use of social media by adolescence. Thus, the study aimed at developing an item pool to tap the construct of social media influencing self-esteem of adolescents following the procedure of tool construction. Participants included adolescents ranging between 16 to 18 years of age, who have at least one social media account for personal use. There were 110 participants for the first phase and 397 participants for the second phase of the study. The scale has eight items with the overall reliability of .7. It indicates a fitting measure of self-esteem influenced by social media, with looking-glass self theory, according to which individuals develop their self, based on their perceptions of others responses to their behaviour.