Social media intensity and first-year college students’ academic self-efficacy in Flanders and the United States

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between social media use and first-year college students’ academic self-efficacy in two large, research intensive universities in Flanders (N = 513) and the United States (N = 431). Given cultivation and social cognitive theories’ premises that consistent media messages can shape attitudes and beliefs about self and other, perceptions of others’ academic ease (or the perceptions of how difficult it is for peers to do well in college) was included as a mediator. For the U.S., Twitter was directly and indirectly associated with self-efficacy. In the Flanders sample, both Facebook and Twitter had significant direct and indirect effects on self-efficacy. The results’ opposite directionality (e.g., Twitter’s positive direct effect, Facebook’s negative direct effect) suggest the two media operate differently. Contextual differences and theoretical implications for media effects research are discussed along with practical implications for the first-year transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• student adjustment
• academic self-efficacy
• cultivation theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. At the time of conceptualization, Facebook and Twitter were more globally popular than other social media platforms (“Top 15 most popular social networking sites,” 2015). Instagram was gaining in popularity – and has currently surpassed Twitter globally (Pew Research Center, 2017) – however, there were concerns about potential measurement issues given that Instagram posts can be cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. As such, we chose to focus on two social media platforms that limit those measurement concerns and discussed Instagram as a potential future research area.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by Purdue University’s Office of the President and the College of Liberal Arts.

Notes on contributors

Jenna McNallie

Jenna McNallie (Ph.D., Purdue University, 2015) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Film, and New Media at Augsburg University.

Elisabeth Timmermans

Elisabeth Timmermans (Ph.D., KU Leuven, 2017) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Media and Communication at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Elizabeth Dorrance Hall

Elizabeth Dorrance Hall (Ph.D., Purdue University, 2015) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University and director of the Family Communication and Relationships Lab.

Jan Van den Bulck

Jan Van den Bulck (PhD, KU Leuven, 1996; DSc, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2006) is a Professor of Media Psychology and director of the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Steven R. Wilson

Steven R. Wilson (Ph.D., Purdue University, 1989) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida.