Utilisation problématique de Facebook à l’adolescence et au jeune âge adulte

Abstract

BackgroundToday, social networks and in particular Facebook, bring together many adolescents and young adults and offer new ways of communicating. However, these communication tools can lead to a problematic use and appears to be associated with psychopathological symptoms. Therefore, this problematic Facebook use (or Facebook addiction) is an emerging issue; few research studies have been conducted on these characteristics particularly among adolescents and young adults, and fewer within French samples. ObjectiveOur main objective was to compare psychopathological characteristics of problematic and non-problematic Facebook users, in terms of parental style, personality, psychopathological symptoms and motivations. We suppose problematic Facebook users are different from non-problematic users in terms of parental style, personality, psychopathological disorders and motives. Participants and methodFour hundred and fifty-six adolescents and young adults aged between 12 and 25-years-old [108 boys (24%); 348 girls (76%)] with a Facebook account completed an online questionnaire consisting of several scales : the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) designed to Facebook problematic use, the questionnaire of motivations for using Facebook, the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D10), the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A), the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS), the borderline personality scale of the PDQ-4 and the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). ResultsTwelve percent of girls and 5% of boys had a problematic Facebook use. Principal motivations for Facebook use were relationship maintenance, entertainment and passing time for problematic and non-problematic Facebook users. Problematic Facebook users (n=47) had significant higher scores for each motivation of Facebook use (P<0.001) and for depressive symptomatology (P<0.001), social anxiety (P<0.001), borderline personality traits (P<0.001) and perceived control from the mother (P=0.01), and a significant lower score for perceived care from the mother (P=0.03). ConclusionProblematic Facebook use concerns a significant minority of adolescents and young adults, and more significantly women. Nevertheless, problematic Facebook users were characterized by a higher level of psychopathological symptoms compared to non-problematic Facebook users. Results suggest the need of achieving more researches on this field and preventing this specific Facebook problematic use.