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Using the internet to socialise has become an integral part of everyday existence for many individuals (O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Social Networking Sites (SNS) have increased in prevalence since the creation of Facebook in 2004, with sites such as Instagram, SnapChat and Twitter created in its wake. These sites are being increasingly used by both adults and adolescents (Livingstone et al., 2017), yet much of the research (e.g., Jozani et al., 2020; Naslund et al., 2020) explores older adolescents and young adults, rather than younger adolescents. With adolescence referring to the transitionary stage from childhood commencing with pubertal development and ending with the physical and social independence of adulthood (typically between 10-24 years of age; Sawyer et al., 2018) this is a large age range where many developments occur; thus, it is important to understand more about younger adolescents (13-18 years) SNS perceptions and understanding.
Immersed within a digital world, young adolescents are increasingly engaging with SNS use (Turner, 2015). In fact, Ofcom (2019) identified that younger adolescents’ SNS use in the United Kingdom has remained stable over the past five years with an average of 70% of adolescents owning their own profile. They report that the continued popularity of SNS, as well as the evolvement of newer sites such as TikTok, suggests that these sites are integrated within adolescents’ lives and digital ecology even prior to them meeting the minimum age restriction for these sites, which is 13 years old.
Research that has explored 13- to 18-year-olds engagement with SNS predominantly on the amount of time adolescents spend online and the risks associated with this, often failing to explore and recognise the benefits of engaging with SNS. Further, frequency of SNS use is debated within the literature in terms of how impactful it really is with regards to experiencing the risks and benefits (Domingues-Montanari, 2017). Crucially, research has not explored adolescents’ risk concern and to what extent this may inform their perceptions of the benefits. This study aims to investigate how adolescents’ levels of concerns about the risks of SNS use may predict their perceptions of the benefits of SNS.
Risk Concern and Protection Motivation Theory
Perceptions of risks and benefits are embedded within Rogers’ protection motivation theory (1975; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997): individuals perceptions are shaped by how likely they perceive a risk, how severe it may be, and how effective protective measures may be. Where the likelihood and severity of something occurring are viewed to be high and protective measures are viewed to be low than individuals often perceive the risks as outweighing the benefits (Roger, 1983). Wildavsky and Drake (1990) extend this theory by arguing that risk concern moderates risk and benefit perceptions; the more concerned an individual is about a risk, the more likely that they are to perceive the likelihood and severity as high and the protective measures as low. Further, this individual is likely to perceive less benefits (Roger, 1983).
Much literature identifies that adolescents’ perceptions of risks and benefits are also informed by their risk concern (Benthim et al., 1993; Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). These findings have been found across multiple domains, including smoking (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002), underage drinking (Goldberg et al., 2002), and illegal substance misuse (Grevenstein et al., 2015). Despite evidence of this theory’s applicability within adolescence and across domains, there has been limited application of this to understand adolescents’ perceptions of SNS use.
Adolescent risk concern and perceptions of SNS use has had some research coverage (Lareki et al., 2017; Youn & Hall, 2008) but only in specific relation to the risks. To date, an understanding of how risk concern relates to perceptions of SNS benefits in adolescence is lacking. This study will use Rogers’ protection motivation theory (1975; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997), as a theoretical model, to understand how perceived benefits of SNS use may be related to concerns around the risks of SNS use.