The Relationships between Adolescents' Perceptions of Others and Their Social Interactions on Social Media

Abstract

Given that social media can impact adolescents' development of social-emotional competence, this study aims to examine how adolescents' perceptions of others affects their social interactions on social media. This study is a secondary analysis of the Pew Research Center's 2014 Teens Relationships Survey. Participants included 1060 adolescents between 13-17 year olds with a racial/ethnic distribution of 57.9% Caucasian, 9.6% African-American, 22.2% Hispanic, 5.7% Mixed race, and 4.6% Others. A Pearson chi-square test was conducted to examine whether adolescents' perceptions of others related to their social interactions on social media. The results revealed that adolescents who strongly agreed that people were less authentic on social media were more likely to report that they blocked individuals (X2 = 403.66, df = 12, p