Associations of early social media initiation on digital behaviors and the moderating role of limiting use

Abstract

Little is known about the effects of social media initiation on digital behaviors from middle childhood to early adolescence, a critical developmental period marked by peer influence and inaugural access to mobile devices. Participants from middle schools in the Northeast U.S. (N=773; 11-15 years, Mean = 12.6) completed a cross-sectional survey about social media initiation, digital behaviors, and parental restrictions on digital use. Descriptive results demonstrated that overall early adolescents more frequently engaged in positive digital behaviors compared to negative ones. Results from structural equation models showed that initiating social media platforms, namely Instagram or Snapchat, in later childhood (10 years or younger) was significantly associated with problematic digital behavior outcomes compared to either tween (11-12) and/or teen (13+) initiation, including having online friends or joining social media sites parents would disapprove of, more problematic digital technology behaviors, more unsympathetic online behaviors, and greater likelihood of online harassment and sexual harassment victimization. Additionally, there is evidence to show that childhood initiators demonstrated a greater tendency to engage in supportive or civically-engaged online community behaviors compared to older initiator counterparts. Parental restriction of mobile phone use and a less frequent checking of social media ameliorated some of the negative effects.

Keywords: early adolescence; mobile phones; online harassment; parental monitoring; problematic internet use; social media.

Figure 1.

Conceptual Model

Figure 2.

Age of social media initiation, parent limit setting, and feelings of FoMO In the models examining whether the frequency of checking social media moderates the link between childhood social media initiation and digital behaviors, results suggested lower rates of checking social media were associated with less online harassment for all youth (see Figure 3). In addition, childhood initiators who frequently checked social media were the most likely to experience online harassment (B=.16, p < .05).

Figure 3.

Age of social media initiation, frequency of checking, and rates of online harassment