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Can Facebook Informational Use Foster Adolescent Civic Engagement?

  • Original Article
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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

The findings on the association between Social Networking Sites and civic engagement are mixed. The present study aims to evaluate a theoretical model linking the informational use of Internet-based social media (specifically, Facebook) with civic competencies and intentions for future civic engagement, taking into account the mediating role of civic discussions with family and friends and sharing the news online. Participants were 114 Italian high school students aged 14–17 years (57 % boys). Path analysis was used to evaluate the proposed theoretical model. Results showed that Facebook informational use was associated with higher levels of adolescent perceived competence for civic action, both directly and through the mediation of civic discussion with parents and friends (offline). Higher levels of civic competencies, then, were associated with a stronger intention to participate in the civic domain in the future. Our findings suggest that Facebook may provide adolescents with additional tools through which they can learn civic activities or develop the skills necessary to participate in the future.

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Notes

  1. The school did not allow us to collect information on socioeconomic status or ethnic background of participants. However, we obtained from the School Principal the data on percentage of immigrants in the school, that is 3.45 %. Thus, we can assume that our sample was very homogeneous in terms of ethnic composition.

  2. According to several studies (e.g., Rosario et al. 2005), in models without latent variables, standard fit indices are not particularly useful because they are often not sensitive to errors in model equations that are expressed from the W matrix. To demonstrate this, in a previous work (Lenzi et al. 2012) we performed a simple Monte Carlo simulation based on parameters of our model. The results of the simulation are available in the Appendix of our previous study (Lenzi et al. 2012). The model fit indices for the final model are as follows: Satorra–Bentler Scaled χ2(2, n = 114) = .533, p = .776; TLI = 1; CFI = 1 RMSEA = .001). According to conventional guidelines (i.e., Schermelleh-Engel et al. 2003) these indices indicate a good model fit.

  3. In addition, we re-estimated the models with the maximum likelihood estimator using a bootstrap approach (5000 bootstrap samples and percentile method to calculate bootstrapped confidence intervals). Overall, the results support those obtained with the MLE with robust standard errors.

  4. The model has also been estimated using age and gender as control variables. The results confirm our previous findings; all estimated parameters of the final model (including indirect effect estimates) remained significant at the .05 level and in the same direction as the previous ones.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very thankful to Valentina Lorenzi for her valuable contribution in the development of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Belzoni, 80, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Michela Lenzi, Alessio Vieno, Gianmarco Altoè & Massimo Santinello

  2. Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Valle d’Aosta, Aosta, Italy

    Luca Scacchi

  3. Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Douglas D. Perkins

  4. Department of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Rita Zukauskiene

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  1. Michela Lenzi
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  2. Alessio Vieno
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  3. Gianmarco Altoè
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  4. Luca Scacchi
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  6. Rita Zukauskiene
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  7. Massimo Santinello
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Correspondence to Michela Lenzi.

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Lenzi, M., Vieno, A., Altoè, G. et al. Can Facebook Informational Use Foster Adolescent Civic Engagement?. Am J Community Psychol 55, 444–454 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9723-1

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