Relationship between variables of adolescent Instagram use and their perceptions of learning climate

Abstract

Social media provides adolescents with a viable means of connecting with their peers in ways that were not previously available to them. Social media use is related to feelings of connectedness with family, friends, and others (Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, & Smith, 2007; Shapiro & Margolin, 2014). For example, Barker (2009) discusses how those that are not comfortable with face-to-face interactions now have the means of connecting with others while in an online space, allowing them to have some distance from those with whom they are interacting. Learning climate is the space made up of school and classroom climate in which students, teachers, and administrators interact within a set of shared beliefs, values, and attitudes. According to Cengel and Turkoglu (2016) and others (Doll, Spies, LeClair, Kuein, & Foley, 2010), the four main principles of a positive school climate are: peer relations, teacher-student relations, the way that individuals consider themselves in the academic field, and the way they get satisfaction in the classroom.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between adolescent Instagram use and adolescent perceptions of the learning climate. The data (N = 140) collected were related to adolescents' Instagram use in terms of reach (variety and number of others), intensity (adolescent value of Instagram), time/visits, and participation type (active vs. lurking) and their perceptions of learning climate as defined by positive student-teacher relationships, school social environment, school connectedness and opportunities for engagement, which allowed the detailed investigation of the relationship between the two major variables using correlational and regression analyses among the variables.

Findings indicate that adolescent values of Instagram predict lower perceptions of opportunities for engagement while time/visits to Instagram predict higher perceptions of opportunities for engagement. However, participation type (active vs. passive), and network reach did not have predictive relationships with variable from the learning climate (i.e., positive student teacher relationships, school social environment, school connectedness, and opportunities for engagement). Future studies of adolescence and social media should focus on emotional connections for further explanation of these results.