Satisfaction of basic psychological needs through social media engagement and subjective well-being among Vietnamese adolescents

• Main Author: Hoang Thi Thuy Tien
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Social media > Psychological aspects; Teenagers—Social networks > Vietnam; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_counseling/7; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=etdm_counseling
• Institution: De La Salle University

Social media can serve as a popular avenue for adolescents to enhance their self-identity that supports their Subjective Well-Being. Why this happens remains unclear. Drawing from the Self-Determination Theory, the study explored the experiences of Social Media Use on Basic Psychological Needs including Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness that lead to Subjective Well-Being including Life Satisfaction and Affect Balance among Vietnamese high school students. In particular, two studies were conducted to examine the relationship of these factors to Subjective Well-Being and explained how they contributed to adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Affect Balance. There were 219 high school students (Female=111; Male=108) with ages ranging from 14 to 18 years (M=16.08) who participated in the first study which used a cross-sectional predictive non-experimental design. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that the satisfaction of the three needs online positively predicted Affect Balance, and Satisfaction of Autonomy and Competence through social media engagement significantly predicted Life Satisfaction. However, Satisfaction of Relatedness through social media engagement did not predict Life Satisfaction. The second study consisted of one-on-one interviews with 8 students to further understand how social media engagement supported Basic Psychological Needs. Thematic analysis showed that students use social media as a tool for self-expression, self-improvement, self-promotion, source of knowledge, accessibility, safe space for disclosure, care and support, and enjoyment with others to enhance self-identity that strengthen their Subjective Well-Being in the online environment. Implications of this study were discussed for those who practice counseling, for parents and teachers, and for future research.