As inter-relações entre a autoestima de adolescentes, as mídias sociais e as famílias

Abstract

Self-esteem can be defined as an individual's evaluation of themselves, expressing an attitude of approval or disapproval. Individual characteristics, the social environment and society act in a systemic way in the formation of self-esteem, given that the way of evaluating and forming an opinion about oneself occurs through interactions with other individuals. With technological advances and the emergence of social media, teenagers have started to interact constantly in cyberspace, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows that the constant use of social media has favored comparison and contributed to the development of low self-esteem, lack of identification with peers, anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction, among others, making it increasingly important to monitor and communicate clearly between adolescents and their guardians, so that the use of these media is established in a conscious and healthy way. It is therefore necessary to carry out research in this area, especially in the Brazilian context, in order to elucidate the state of the art and promote quality of life for these young people. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of social media by adolescents, the consumption of content from these media in relation to levels of self-esteem, as well as to associate parenting styles with the level of self-esteem of adolescents. The study included 104 adolescents aged 14 to 19 who were enrolled in regular public and private high school in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. The first stage of the research was carried out with the collective application of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RAS) and the Questionnaire on the use of Social Media. The second stage involved one of the parents filling in the Social Media Use Questionnaire adapted for Parents, the Parenting Styles Questionnaire (PAQ) and the Family Characterization Questionnaire. After collection, the data was analyzed using Jamovi software to write the dissertation. The results showed that the boys' level of self-esteem is not represented by the normal curve, i.e. some scored their self-esteem very low and others scored their self-esteem very high. The majority of girls, on the other hand, had self-esteem within the average range. It was possible to observe a significant relationship between time spent with the family and cell phone use, showing that the adolescents recognize that the use of the device disrupts this bond. There was no association between parenting style and the participants' level of self-esteem; one hypothesis for this result may be the low number of parents who took part in the survey.