Investigating the role of Facebook usage, life satisfaction, self-esteem and social support in predicting the loneliness of Turkish university student.

2013-09-11
Çağ, Pınar
Barutçu Yıldırım, Kadriye Funda
Show full item record
196
views
0
downloads
Loneliness affects feelings, behaviors, social and physiological aspects of people for a lifetime (Heinrich & Gullone, 2006). Loneliness is a significant indicator of mental health, can be defined as the feeling of not having a good social network (Peplau & Perlman, 1982). A number of studies have examined the issue of loneliness and its predictors for three decades (Cheng & Furnham, 2002: Frisen, 2007: Qalter, Brown, Rotenberg, Vanhalst, Harris, Goossens, & Bangee, 2013: Peplau & Perlman, 1982). Until recent years, the relationship between loneliness and life satisfaction, (Mellor, Hayaski, Stokes, Firth, Lake, Staples,… ,Cummins, 2008), social support and self-esteem (Kapıkıran, 2013) have been examined extensively. The facility of widespread usage of internet gradually makes it possible to connect with others via social network sites as well. As the feeling of loneliness means lacking of communication with others, the new tools of social network communication sites such as Facebook has taken the attention of researchers (Yang & Brown, 2013). Facebook offers its users the chance of creating a profile, sharing photos, music and videos, messaging and getting in touch with people (Joinson, 2008: Kalpidou, Costin & Morris, 2011). Furthermore, youths between 8-18 ages spend 6.5 hours in social network sites in USA (Roberts, Foehr & Rideout, 2005). In Turkey, people spend weekly 29.7 hours on the net (Meclis Araştırma Komisyonu Raporu, 2012). Therefore, a social communication environment, Facebook, is an important issue regarding students’ social development (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009). The purpose of this study was to find the role of Facebook usage, life satisfaction, self esteem and social support in predicting the loneliness of university students. Undergraduate and graduate students studying at 10 universities in Ankara participated to the study. Among participants (N=498), 342 (68.7 %) of them were female and 156 (31.3 %) were male. In this study, convenient sampling method was used and the scales were administered via both online and paper-pencil test format. As the instruments, Facebook Intensity Scale (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007), Rosenberg Self –Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) adapted by Çuhadaroğlu (1986), UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau & Ferguson, 1978) adapted by Durak & ŞenolDurak (2010) , Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimmer, 1988) adapted into Turkish by Eker & Akar (1995), The Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Laresen & Griffin, 1985) by Dural, Şenol-Durak & Gençöz (2010) were applied to the participants. A pilot study was conducted for Turkish adaptation of Facebook Intensity Scale by researchers. The FBI was translated into Turkish and then its psychometric properties were examined. FBI was applied to 207 university students (Cronbach’s alpha = .84). Also, the preliminary results indicated that the factor structure of the scale was valid and reliable. To analyze the data, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was carried out in this study. All statistical analyses were performed with utilizing IBM SPSS 20. The results showed that 51 % of the total variance was explained with this model. All of the five models: Facebook intensity, self esteem, perceived social support and life satisfaction were significant in predicting loneliness. Each one of gender, Facebook usage and life satisfaction explained 2% of the total variance separately. Self esteem explained 37% of total variance by itself. Moreover, self esteem, perceived social support and life satisfaction was negatively related with loneliness. Among university students, as Facebook usage, self esteem, perceived social support and life satisfaction increase, loneliness decreases. The finding of the study was in accordance with the previous studies. For further research, the study can be replicated with other samples in different ages and at different places. The limitation of the study was that convenience sampling method limited the opportunity to generalizability of the results.
Loneliness,, Facebook,, Life satisfaction,, Self-esteem,, Social support
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/82519
World Congress of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, (8 - 11 Eylül 2013)
Department of Educational Sciences, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

Examination of Eating Attitudes in Terms of Interpersonal Relationships and Life Satisfaction in Late Adolescence
Berber Çelik, Çiğdem; Kaya, Özgür Salih (2018-09-01)
Exploring the Link Between Emotional and Behavioral Dysregulation: A Test of the Emotional Cascade Model
Tuna, Ezgi; Bozo Özen, Özlem (Informa UK Limited, 2014-01-01)
The emotional cascade model (Selby, Anestis, & Joiner, 2008) posits that the link between emotional and behavioral dysregulation may be through emotional cascades, which are repetitive cycles of rumination and negative affect that result in an intensification of emotional distress. Dysregulated behaviors, such as non-suicidal self-injury, are used to reduce aversive emotions and distract the person from ruminative processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emotional cascade model in a no...
The Role of emotions and emotion regulation in the system justification process
Solak, Nevin; Sümer, Nebi; Jost, John T.; Department of Psychology (2015)
The studies of emotions and emotion regulation from the social psychological perspective have been dominated by two general approaches, namely, individual and group-based research perspectives (e.g., Frijda, 1986; Gross, 2014; Halperin, 2014; Smith, Seger, & Mackie, 2007). Considering that emotions cannot only be limited to the individual- and the group-level contexts, the system-level dynamics (Stangor & Jost, 1997) should be examined to better understand their impacts on both individual and society. Drawi...
The Relationship between perfectionism and depression: mediator roles of perceived social support and mattering
Kumpasoğlu, Güler Beril; Karancı, A. Nuray.; Department of Psychology (2019)
The main aim of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between perfectionism and depression according to Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model and to explore the mediator roles of perceived social support and mattering on this relationship. 343 students from the Middle East Technical University participated the study. Beck Depression Inventory, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Perfectionistic Self Presentation Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Suppor...
Associates of social deviancy and violence among prisoners
Erkunt, Adonis Çiğdem; Gençöz, Tülin; Department of Psychology (2003)
This study aimed at finding the associates of social deviance and violence by using the variables of self-esteem, coping styles, social support, family relations, and life events in Turkish prisoner sample. The prisoners were a hundred male prisoners who are under arrest for different crimes, in İstanbul Special Type Prison. Preceding the main analyses, Factor Analyses for Multidimensional Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and Ways of Coping Scale (WOCS) were conducted. These analyses yielded three factors f...
Citation Formats
P. Çağ and K. F. Barutçu Yıldırım, “Investigating the role of Facebook usage, life satisfaction, self-esteem and social support in predicting the loneliness of Turkish university student.,” presented at the World Congress of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, (8 - 11 Eylül 2013), İstanbul, Türkiye, 2013, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/82519.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr