Browsing by Author "Kalliojärvi, Sanja"

The aim of this study was to find out the associations between socio-digital participation, self-esteem and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and to examine whether these associations differ by gender. Previous studies have shown that FoMO is related to increased use of social media, lower well-being, and lower life satisfaction. Girls have been found to use social media more regularly than boys and are slightly more susceptible to the social effects of self-esteem. Based on previous research the hypothesis was that gender differences would be found and that FoMO would be associated with both self-esteem and socio-digital participation. The data used in the study was part of the Bridging the Gaps -research project funded by the Academy of Finland (2017–2021). The data was collected using a survey in the third year of high school in 2019 (N = 751). The survey examined, among other things, adolescents’ socio-digital participation, thoughts about themselves, and experiences of FoMO. The associations between socio-digital participation, self-esteem and FoMO were examined using correlation network analysis. Gender differences were examined by creating separate correlation networks for boys and girls, as well as examining girls and boys within the same correlation network. Minor differences were found between the correlation networks formed separately for boys and girls. For girls, socio-digital participation was not directly related to self-esteem, but the connections were indirect through FoMO, while for boys, direct positive associations were found between the two dimensions. When examining genders within the same correlation network, further connections were found between socio-digital participation and self-esteem. In this study, FoMO was the most central dimension in all correlation networks. This study confirms previous research finding that FoMO is associated with increased use of social media. This study did not find any direct connections between girls’ self-esteem and social media use. It would be important to continue studying the effects of social media use on adolescents’ well-being and self-esteem to develop social media applications that are even safer for adolescents’ development.