Emotional Maturity, Social Media Attachment and Identity Development among Adolescents in Secondary School, Oromia Region Ethiopia.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional maturity and social media attachment for identity development among adolescents. Cross sectional survey research design was employed on 441 randomly selected adolescents in six nominated secondary schools from six nominated zonal towns of Oromia region. Aspects of identity questionnaire, emotional maturity scale, and social media attachment scale were employed for the assessment. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation, one-way ANOVA, and multiple liner regression were utilized to analyze the data. As a result, Out of 441 participants, 6.3% of the adolescents reported diffused identity development; 59.6% adolescents had been extremely emotionally immature; and 35.4% of adolescents were attached to social media inappropriately. Moreover, collective identity and personal identity were reported highly and poorly, respectively as identity development dimensions by the adolescents. Besides, rejection by others, unhealthy ethnic based political competition, sudden changes in life, hate speech in social media, and unrealistic expectations were highly reported causes for identity crisis. Furthermore, personal disintegration, social maladjustment, lack of independence, and emotional instability were reported as emotional maturity dimensions. Pearson correlation result showed that emotional immaturity strongly and positively correlated with social media attachment. On the other hand, there was a moderate and negative correlation between identity development not only with emotional immaturity but also with extreme social media attachment. Specifically, social identity with social maladjustment, relational identity with emotional regression, collective identity with lack of independence, and personal identity with personal disintegration were negatively and strongly correlated. In addition, ANOVA result revealed that birth order, average family monthly income, educational status of parents had statistically significant mean effect on identity development, emotional immaturity, and media attachment with different effect size. Likewise, independent sample t-test result showed that number of languages spoken and variation of family ethnic background had a statistically significant mean effect on social media attachment, emotional immaturity and identity development. Furthermore, multiple liner regression analysis result showed that personal integration significantly predicted identity development. Based on the findings, it is suggested that collaborative, multidimensional, and culture based preventive and intervention programs to create a helpful learning environment that promotes students’ positiveidentity development and psycho-socio-emotional wellbeing, improves their productivity, and enhances their success be developed and applied.