Social network determinants of screen time among adolescents

Publication date: Available online 21 September 2019Source: The Social Science JournalAuthor(s): Robert BondAbstractThis research investigates the screen-based media consumption of adolescents in their social context, using social contagion theory to understand how screen-based media consumption is affected by an individual’s social environment. To assess the possibility of person-to-person spread and the social network determinants of screen-based media consumption behavior, analyses were performed on the social networks of adolescents. First, the social networks of adolescents were assessed for the degree of clustering of similar screen-based media behavior between friends. Second, regression analyses assess the extent to which these associations may be attributed to friendship selection or to social influence processes. Results show that high screen-based media consumption rates are strongly correlated with high screen-based media consumption rates in one’s friends. This association extends up to six degrees of separation. Implications for understanding how adolescents make decisions about how to consume media are discussed.
Source: The Social Science Journal - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research