The effect of media literacy training on the use of social networks and improving the emotional maturity of senior high school students

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood in which physical, emotional, and social maturity occurs and the adolescent's mental abilities and cognitive and emotional abilities are formed. According to the existing studies, children and adolescents make up the largest audience of the media, and therefore the media and social networks play an important role in socializing adolescents. There are two ways to protect adolescents from the cultural and ideological damage of the media: one is to censor information technology and the other is to increase adolescents' knowledge and skills in dealing with the media (media literacy). This study aimed to determine the effect of media literacy training on the use of social media and the improvement of emotional maturity.Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental using a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all high school students in Sangan in the academic year 2018-2019 (N = 705). Based on the inclusion criteria, 30 of these students were purposefully selected and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control with 15 students in each. The instruments used to perform the pre-test for both groups were: social network addiction questionnaire and the Emotional Maturity Scale (EMS). Then, the experimental group received media literacy training in 4 months and 8 sessions. The control group received no training in this period. After completing these 4 months, both groups were examined in the post-test. Research data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and SPSS 22 software.Findings: The results showed that media literacy training significantly reduced the use of social networks and improved students' emotional maturity in five general factors of emotional immaturity (emotional instability, emotional return, social incompatibility, personality collapse and lack of independence) in the experimental group.Conclusion: In general, the results of this study showed a positive and significant effect of media literacy training in reducing dependence on social networks and increasing students' emotional maturity. In other words, by participating in media literacy training sessions, students were able to reduce their dependence on social networks and it also increased their emotional maturity. Therefore, it can be said that media literacy and its education to adolescents could greatly reduce the incidence of psychological problems and injuries. This study examined the role of media literacy on emotional maturity and the degree of dependence on social networks in a specific population simultaneously. This study further examined the role of media literacy on improving emotional maturity and the use of social networks in a specific population simultaneously. One of the limitations of this study was the time and place limit for conducting a two- to three-month follow-up examination to evaluate the duration of the effect of media literacy skills training.

Keywords

• media literacy
• social media
• emotional maturity