Problematic Usage of Social Media and Social Anxiety A study on a sample of grade repeaters in the Kurdistan Region

Abstract

Social media, when used excessively, can be problematic and lead to impairments. Several studies also suggest that there is a relationship between social media addiction and social anxiety. For example, the social compensation hypothesis states that individuals who have deficits in social skills and experience unrest in face-to-face social interaction may use social media as a way to make up for their deficits in skills and limited social interaction. Therefore, this study aims to explore the problematic use of social media and social anxiety, and the relationship between these two variables among secondary students with a history of academic failure. The sample of this study consisted of 135 students with a history of academic failure, selected from three different high schools.

Introduction

Social media usage has grown remarkably in the last decade globally. According to a survey by Statista, social media has tripled, increasing from almost a billion users in 2010 to roughly 3 billion users worldwide, and they suggest it will keep increasing in the coming years (Statista, 2018). As reported by the Arab social media report, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the Arab region, with 156 million users, of which 32.3% are female. Among the Arab countries, Iraq has around 14 million Facebook users, one of the highest (Salem, 2017). Evidently, the new technology is not without risks when used problematically.

Problematic Use of Social Media

World Health Organization (WHO) started performing activities relevant to the consequences of excessive use of the Internet and other communication platforms after professionals expressed their worry about the issue, which WHO regarded as a significant public health concern in a report (World Health Organization, 2014). Empirical studies exploring the detrimental effects of social media usage have been described as “lacking consistency”, due to which a diagnosis of internet-related disorders is yet to be established; furthermore, there exist various forms of synonyms in the scientific literature with varying diagnostic implications such as Social Networking addiction, Facebook addiction, social media addiction, etc. (Bányai et al., 2017). However, problematic use of social media has been characterized by Andreassen and Pallesen (2014) as devoting excessive time and effort to social media use leads to impairment in social, occupational, and academic domains of life and/or in psychological well-being, having unrestrained concern about social media, and being driven by a strong motivation to engage in the usage of social media. A study conducted in Hungary surveyed a nationally representative adolescent sample of 5,961. 15.5% of the sample were at low risk of problematic social media use, whilst 4.1% were at risk of problematic use of social media (Bányai et al., 2017). A survey study was conducted in Turkey to explore the level of social media addiction among 596 high school students. The results showed that the participants' mean score on the social media addiction score was in the category of low addiction. Further, there was no significant difference between male and female participants in social media addiction (Afacan, 2019). Whereas regarding the gender variation in adolescents, Dufour et al. (2017) found that 1.45% of girls and 1.16% of boys were problematic users of the internet, which included social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. However, no statistically significant differences between males and females were found among a sample of 3,931 students in grades 9, 10, and 11.

Social anxiety

Social anxiety is characterized by a persistent and unrealistically intense fear of social situations in which the individual is faced with possible scrutiny from others; the intense fear can also be triggered when encountering unfamiliar people (Kring et al., 2014). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth version (DSM-V), the 12-month prevalence of social anxiety is around 7%, while in Europe, it clusters between 0.5%-2.0%. The prevalence rate is similar for adults and adolescents, whilst, regarding gender variations, females are reported to have higher rates of social anxiety (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In the mental health survey of Iraq conducted by WHO, the prevalence of social anxiety was roughly 1%; females had higher 12-month prevalence rates of the disorder, while the lifetime prevalence did not provide a significant difference between the genders. However, the prevalence rate of social anxiety in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) was found to be significantly higher at approximately 2.7% compared to the south and central regions of Iraq (World Health Organization, 2009). A study done in the capital city of Iraq, Baghdad, on 1080 randomly selected secondary students, using validated and reliable measurement tools, reported that 44% of the sample showed symptoms of social anxiety. However, after applying the DSM-IV criteria for social anxiety disorder, the rate decreased to 1.67% and was higher among females than males (Hummadi & AlObaidi, 2014). In Iran, a rate of 6.2% with no significant gender differences were reported by (Dodangi et al., 2014). Individuals with social anxiety experience impairment in various life domains (Aderka et al., 2012). Concerning scholastic difficulties experienced by people with social anxiety, Stein and Kean (2000, p. 1610) reported that “A lifetime diagnosis of social phobia was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of having failed a grade”. In addition, the same study reported that 38.1% of the individuals with social anxiety did not complete high school, which was higher compared to the 30.1% rate of high school dropout in people without social anxiety.

Problematic use of social media and social anxiety

Various studies show that there is a relationship between problematic use of social media or social media addiction and social anxiety. Yen et al. (2012) reported that social anxiety during online interaction was generally lower than during real-life interactions. The authors suggested that online provides anonymity, and it is easier to escape embarrassing situations, which socially anxious people dread. People with social anxiety also find online communication in a texting manner helpful in avoiding the feared aspect of social interaction without having to abandon social interaction altogether since online communication meets their social needs to a certain degree (Erwin et al., 2004). Another study on a sample of undergraduate students reported that socially anxious use social media to meet their unmet needs and that this leads to problematic usage of social media. The authors also reported that the male student’s problematic use of social media was partly associated with self-representation (i.e., avoidance of displaying imperfection and appearing more competent), whilst in the case of the female students' satisfaction with the need to belong was the only predictor of problematic use of social media (Casale & Fioravanti, 2015).

Although problematic use of social media and social anxiety have been previously explored for their prevalence among secondary students, and there are a number of studies exploring their relationship with academic performance, there is a dearth of systematic research, globally and also in the KRI, on students with a history of academic failure. In the KRI, problematic use of social media has not been subjected to scientific exploration using reliable and valid assessment tools. Thus, The aim of the current study is to examine the level of problematic use of social media based on different variables, including gender, age, and economic status, as well as social anxiety among secondary students with a history of academic failure and the relationship between them. The present study also aims to address gender differences in social anxiety. This study attempts to answer the following research questions:

What is the level of problematic use of social media among the sample?
Are there significant gender differences in the problematic use of social media?
What is the level of problematic use of social media among the sample?
Are there significant gender differences in the problematic use of social media?
What sort of relationship exists between the problematic use of social media and social anxiety?

Method

Participants

The participants were either in grade 10 or 11. The data was collected from three secondary schools in Erbil city of KRI. Two of these schools were for girls, and one was for boys; two were evening schools, which are for students who have been debarred from daytime schools mainly due to grade retention. A convenience sampling technique was used for the data collection. The students who participated in this study were considered to have a history of academic failure because they were grade repeaters grade (i.e., spending their second year or higher in the same grade). Students who fail at one or more lessons must repeat their grades in the KRI. Grade repeaters of 12th grade were not included in this study since some repeat their grade not necessarily due to low academic performance but due to dissatisfaction with their overall mark and not being eligible to apply for a department of their choice.

Instruments 

For measuring the problematic use of social media, the Social Media Addiction Scale - Student Form (SMAS-SF) was used, which is developed by Şahin (2018) and comprises 29 positive items. The scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale with the following options: Strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neither agree nor disagree (3), Agree (4), strongly agree (5). It also has four sub-dimensions: virtual tolerance; virtual communication; virtual problem, and virtual information.. The highest score on the scale is 145, while the lowest is 29. Higher scores indicate that the individual perceives him/herself as “addicted to social media”. In the current study, based on Cronbach’s alpha, the internal consistency of the scale on the sample of this study was shown to be high (alpha=.89). The scale was translated into Kurdish through the forward/back-translation technique

Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for Adolescents (K-GSADS-A) was the second questionnaire used in this study developed by (Kutcher, 1999). This scale was deemed student-friendly by the author of the current research. Thus, it was translated into Kurdish through the forward/back-translation technique. The scale comprises four sections; the discomfort, anxiety, and distress part of section A of the scale was adopted for use in the current study. The section consists of 18 items with a 4-point Likert scale of the following options: never, mild, Moderate, and Severe, rated 0 to 3, respectively. The higher scores indicate a worsening of social anxiety. The internal consistency of K-GSADS-A on the current study sample based on Cronbach’s alpha was shown to be good (alpha=.80).

Procedure

After obtaining permission from the General Directorate of Education - Erbil, three schools were visited. School administrations consented to the process and accompanied the researcher and a fellow clinical psychology student, helping with the data collection. After explaining the purpose of the research and informing the students that their participation was voluntary, the questionnaires were directly distributed among the students in the classroom. The statistical analyses in this study were carried out by using theStatistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) program version 23 on MicrosoftWindows. 

Results

A Sample of 165 secondary students participated in this study; however, 30 were ineligible due to not completing a major part of the questionnaires, so data from 135 participants were used in the analysis. The age range of the participants was between 16 to 26; three participants did not report their age. The mean age was 19.22, with a standard deviation of 2.01. Of the total 135 participants, 60 were male, and 75 were female. 80% of the participants reported a medium level of economic status. Regarding retention years of the participants, 84 were repeating their grades for the first time, whilst 51 were repeating their grades for the second time.

The main aims of this study were to find the level of problematic use of social media and social anxiety. The results from the descriptive statistics showed that the participants reported their problematic use of social media at a moderate level (M=74.03, SD=8.29). It can also be seen that the mean score of the virtual communication sub-dimension was the highest, whilst virtual tolerance was the lowest. Virtual problem and virtual information sub-dimensions had the second and third-highest mean scores, respectively. As for social anxiety, the results showed that the level of social anxiety is mild (M=19.24, SD=8.29) among the participants.

As for gender differences in the problematic use of social media and its sub-dimensions, the results from independent sample t-tests showed that the overall problematic use of social media did not exhibit a significant difference between the genders. The only sub-dimension that yielded a statistically significant difference between males (M=24.03, SD=7.38) and females (M=21.53, SD=5.94), with males scoring higher, was the virtual communication sub-dimension. For assessing gender differences in social anxiety, an independent sample t-test was carried out. The results showed that male participants experienced higher social anxiety (M=21.87, SD=8.14) than female participants (M=17.15, SD=8.14). 

Another main aim of this study was to find the relationship between the problematic use of social media and social anxiety, which was investigated using Pearson’s correlation. The results showed that problematic use of social media and social anxiety correlated positively and moderately. Consequently, a positive relationship between problematic use of social media and social anxiety is supported.

A one-way ANOVA was conducted to investigate the problematic use of social media based on economic status levels (i.e., Low, medium, high). The results demonstrated no significant difference in the problematic use of social media based on the three economic status levels.

Discussion

The current study investigated the problematic use of social media based on social anxiety based on a number of variables. The relationship between social anxiety and problematic use of social media was also explored among secondary students with a history of academic failure. The results showed that the use of social media was moderately problematic. The present study also found no significant gender differences in the participants' problematic use of social media. This finding is consistent with the findings of Afacan (2019), who reported no significant gender differences in secondary students. Furthermore, Dufour et al. (2017) reported similar results with regard to gender variation in the problematic use of social media. One possible reason could be that the use of social media is pervasive and that boys and girls use social media at similar levels. 

The current study found that the level of social anxiety among the sample was mild, with males experiencing more social anxiety. This finding is inconsistent with numerous studies that have reported higher social anxiety among females, including the American Psychiatric Association (2013) in the United States, Hummadi and AlObaidi (2014) in Iraq, and Wetterberg (2004) in Sweden. However, one study in Iran did not find statistically significant gender differences in social anxiety (Dodangi et al., 2014). The higher social anxiety among male students can be due to males becoming more academically inhibited than females; however, this requires further investigation. 

It was found in this study problematic use of social media is positively correlated with social anxiety. This is consistent with the findings of (Aladwani & Almarzouq, 2016; Bodroža & Jovanović, 2016; Lee, 2015), all of whom have reported a positive association between the problematic use of social media and social anxiety. The social compensation hypothesis can provide an explanation for this finding, which states that individuals who have deficits in social skills and experience unrest in face-to-face social interaction may use social media as a way to make up for their deficits in skills and limited social interaction (Fernandez et al., 2012).

Limitations

This study was subject to several limitations. Firstly, the sample was not randomly selected and included individuals from only three schools in one city of the KRI, Erbil City. The number of the sample was small and not adequate. Another limitation was related to self-reporting questionnaires, which can promote bias and underestimation of symptoms. Future studies should be carried out using a standardized questionnaire among a randomly selected representative sample.

Conclusion

The present study found that the level of both problematic uses of social media and social anxiety was not particularly high among secondary students with a history of academic failure. However, a significant positive correlation was found between social anxiety and problematic use of social media, a finding that supports previously established social compensation hypotheses and self-determination theory. This study can have various implications in the mental health area. First, by providing more data about the problematic use of social media, which until now has not been established and consistent as a concept, and the results also have therapeutic implications in that mental health practitioners in KRI should consider social media as an avoidance strategy that can be used by clients with social anxiety. Furthermore, the findings from this study can have governmental applications in raising awareness about using social media problematically.

Recommendations 

As social media is a contemporary phenomenon, countries throughout the world have struggled to adapt to it, come up with reasonable regulations on its usage, and undertake awareness-raising campaigns to inform the public about the overuse of social media. Furthermore, social media has become a domain through which detrimental acts, such as bullying, abuse, reputation destruction, and violence against women and kids are perpetuated. Thus there is a crucial role the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) can play in this regard, and this paper is an opportunity to highlight some issues and suggest solutions for them. First, the KRG through its various agencies and non-governmental organizations can start an awareness-raising campaign about the dangers of social media and how it can lead to negative social, health, and mental health outcomes, including social media addiction. The campaigns also contribute toward encouraging Kurdish citizens to regulate their social media use and use the new technology responsibly. Second, the KRG can strengthen its efforts in educating the public, especially vulnerable groups, about how to protect themselves online, especially in terms of sharing private content which can lead to exploitation, abuse, and blackmail. Additionally, informing people on how to proceed if they have experienced a data leak or threat online. Finally, the KRG can take steps toward establishing new regulations and policies regarding social media use, especially to protect people from harm. It is crucial for the KRI to have modern regulations on social media that are based on human rights; taking this step, in this manner, will make it a leading force in the Middle East, for regulating the digital sphere based on human rights. 

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