Perceived Social Support and Facebook Use Among Adolescents

Online social networks have gained considerable popularity among adolescents, but investigations on adolescent engagement with this technology have been limited. The current study investigated adolescents’ Facebook use with regard to their perceived social support characteristics. The data were collected from 255 adolescents in two provincial state schools in Turkey. A personal information form and 12 scaled items were used to collect data. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on scale items and relationships between social support and Facebook use behaviors were investigated. Findings revealed that perceived social support from significant others were predicted by the time spent on Facebook. More support from actual face-to-face friends meant fewer online friends whereas more support from significant others meant more online friends. Profile and security settings varied with regard to perceived social support as well. Regardless of socioeconomic status, less family support was related with adding unknown people haphazardly, and using Internet cafés. Finally, less friend support was related with resorting to nicknames rather than real names. Findings are discussed accompanied with limitations of the current study and suggestions for further research. DOI: 10.4018/ijcbpl.2012010103 International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 2(1), 30-41, January-March 2012 31 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. have spent their entire lives using emerging information and communication tools of the digital age (Prensky, 2001a, 2001b, 2009). While benefits of this technology have been acknowledged regarding better opportunities to reach out to others and maintain relations (Amichai-Hamburger & Hayat, 2011; Baker & White, 2010; Van-Cleemput, 2010), there are also some concerns about frequent (Livingstone, 2008) or unethical use (Akbulut, Sahin, & Eristi, 2010a, 2010b). It has been demonstrated that adolescents’ social characteristics and technology use behaviors are related (Kim, Kim, Park, & Rice, 2007; Stern, 2007; Van-Cleemput, 2010). The intersection of user personality and social media use has been documented as well (Amichai-Hamburger, & Vinitzky, 2010; Correa, Hinsley, & de Zúñiga, 2010; Ross et al., 2009). In this regard, it is fruitful to investigate social media use behaviors with a reference to users’ social or personal profiles so that suggested interrelationships are better clarified. The current study focused on a very popular online social network in Turkey (i.e., Facebook) and investigated the relationships between Turkish adolescents’ Facebook use and their level of perceived social support.