Older adolescents\u27 perceptions of social support and their willingness to seek help for a dating problem from same-sex and other-sex friends

This study examined relations among expectations of support (i.e., emotional and instrumental) and late adolescents\u27 willingness to seek help for a dating problem from female and male friends. It also examined whether teens\u27 willingness to seek help differed by past help seeking and gender, and aspects of help seeking perceived as most and least helpful. Online survey data were collected from 122 adolescents (94 females, 28 males) aged 17-18 years. Results showed that expectations of emotional support from male and female friends were related to greater willingness to seek help from friends of the same gender. Previous help-seeking experience was related to greater willingness to seek help from female friends, but less willingness to seek help from male friends for males. Findings also suggest that adolescents prefer emotional support for a dating problem

Perceptions of severity and the role of coping in university students\u27 experiences with online partner aggression victimization

Despite the frequency with which individuals are currently communicating via forms of technology and the unique features of online communication (i.e., lack of verbal and nonverbal cues, ability to send messages with greater frequency, opportunity to make personal information public, etc.), few studies have considered individuals\u27 perceptions of and experiences with online partner aggression victimization. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, the present research investigated university students\u27 ( N = 349; 82.1% female) experiences of online partner aggression victimization occurring via email, instant messaging, and social networking sites and their perceptions of severity of the aggressive acts. In addition, information was collected about participants\u27 dispositional coping strategies and their psychological and adaptive functioning as well as the indirect effects of coping on associated outcomes. Findings revealed that a large number (82.1%) of participants were victimized by online partner aggression at least once in the past year and that victimization occurred most frequently (71.8%) via instant messaging. Women were found to perceive all categories of online partner aggression as more severe than men. Path analysis indicated that maladaptive coping indirectly affected outcomes for individuals who had experienced online partner aggression such that this method of coping resulted in poorer psychological functioning, but better adaptive functioning. These findings provide support for the seriousness of online partner aggression and the importance of coping style with respect to outcomes. Limitations and clinical implications are discussed

Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use

Facebook is quickly becoming one of the most popular tools for social communication. However, Facebook is somewhat different from other Social Networking Sites as it demonstrates an offline-to-online trend; that is, the majority of Facebook Friends are met offline and then added later. The present research investigated how the Five-Factor Model of personality relates to Facebook use. Despite some expected trends regarding Extraversion and Openness to Experience, results indicated that personality factors were not as influential as previous literature would suggest. The results also indicated that a motivation to communicate was influential in terms of Facebook use. It is suggested that different motivations may be influential in the decision to use tools such as Facebook, especially when individual functions of Facebook are being considered

The influence of shyness on the use of Facebook in an undergraduate sample

Researchers have suggested that individual differences will help to determine which online communication tools appeal to and are used by different individuals. With respect to the domain of computer-mediated communication, shyness is a particular personality trait of interest, as forums provide opportunities for social interactions that shy individuals might otherwise avoid. The present study investigated the personality trait of shyness and its relation with certain features of an online communication tool (Facebook). We hypothesized that shyness would be significantly related to the quantity of time spent on Facebook, the number of contacts added to one’s Facebook profile, and attitudes toward Facebook. Our findings supported that shyness was significantly positively correlated with the time spent on Facebook and having favorable attitudes toward the social networking site. Furthermore, shyness was significantly negatively correlated with the number of Facebook “Friends.” Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research are addressed