KULLIYYAH OF EDUCATION

COURSE TITLE (CODE):

ADOLESCENCE (EDEP 7102)

ASSIGNMENT:
JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE

NAME OF INSTRUCTOR:

DR. SITI RAFIAH ABD HAMID

SUBMISSION BY:

NURUL KAMARIAH BINTI ANWAR (G2219846)

SEMESTER 1, 23/24

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Title : Role of Social Media in Adolescent-Parent Relationship Among At-Risk Youth
Author : Jennifer Davis, Jessica L. Hart (Walden University)
Publisher: Journal of Social, Behavioural, and Health Sciences 2023, Volume 17, Issue 1,
Pages 181–195 https://doi.org/10.5590/JSBHS.2023.17.1.13

The rapid development of social media may change the nature of family institutions

and the relationship between parents and their children. This study aimed to investigate how

social media use by teenagers and parents relates to the at-risk behaviour adolescents report

engaging in, as well as how social media affects the dynamics between at-risk kids and their

parents. This topic is very interesting as it is relevant to the present lifestyle of adolescents, as

it is almost impossible for them to avoid using social media. Even in the world of education,

students are required to use media platforms such as YouTube, Tik Tok, and Facebook for

learning and dissemination of knowledge. According to Rdouan et.al. (2013), social media

enhances communication and interaction among students and between teachers and students.

His research has shown that social media can effectively increase student engagement by

providing a more comfortable platform for shy, scared, or bored students to share ideas and

voice their thoughts.

However, in this paper, the authors focus on the role of social media in adolescent-

parent relationships among at-risk youth. In the literature review, the authors shared the

previous research on how social media impacts adolescents' behaviour and their social

interactions. Most of the past study results discussed in this article showed the negative

impact of social media on adolescent behaviour, and may cause mental issues if its usage is

not controlled. However, the authors identify that there is no research done on the effects of

adolescents’ and parents’ use of social media and how the use might affect their relationships,

as well as parent-reported at-risk behaviours on the part of their adolescent children. This is

the gap addressed by the author of this study. The authors’ decision to do a study on this gap

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is beneficial as it can shed some light on whether social media altered a teenager’s

relationship with their parents and this is an important issue that has been neglected.

This study design is phenomenological. Phenomenology is a type of research that

seeks to explain the nature of things through the way people experience them. Experience

may involve perception, thought, memory, imagination, and emotion or feeling. This research

design challenges conventional wisdom and breaks through long-held beliefs to provide

insights into people's actions and motivations as well as their subjective experiences,

therefore it might support the creation of new theories, modifications of policy, or

adjustments to reactions. Therefore by using this type of research, the researchers can explore

more into the participants' own experiences which is not achievable if they did the research in

a quantitative method.

Six pairs of individuals participated in this study, with each consisting of an

adolescent and their parents. The method of choosing the samples is very interesting as the

researcher recruited the participants through mental outpatient agencies to ensure that the

adolescents interviewed are among at-risk youth. Besides, the participants must engage on

social media for at least 14 hours per week, so I can conclude that the respondent selection

was carefully done to ensure the accuracy of the research findings. However, the parents

involved in this research are mostly mothers, as there are 5 mothers and only 1 father

involved. I believe that the findings of this research would be better if the parents' gender

were at equal numbers, 3 fathers and 3 mothers, because males and females have different

insights and ways of solving problems. Therefore for me, this research lacks insights from the

fathers and the result can be different if the gender is divided equally.

The authors use many tools to ensure the data collection is done with integrity. The

adolescents' parents were interviewed immediately after their children to ensure the accuracy

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of the answers given. The researcher used Otter to transcribe the interviews, and this not only

helped them to make the transcription job easier, but also to ensure that the verbatims were

done accurately.

The researcher followed interpretive phenomenological analysis guidelines when

analysing the data. The transcribing software helped to identify repetitive patterns so that the

researcher could pull out possible themes and subthemes. Finally, they came out with 3 three

themes and five subthemes. In the first theme, the authors found out that the negativity they

encountered on social media did not stop adolescents from using social media. The subtheme

derived from this theme is parents did not stop their adolescents from using media even

though they know the negative impact it has. This finding can be confirmed by a study by

Erickson et.al (2025) that showed that there is an increased teen autonomy and decreased

parental control resulting from teens' direct and unmediated access to virtual spaces. They

also said there is a shift in power to teens who are often more knowledgeable about online

spaces and technology.

In the second theme, the author put the parents' social media illiteracy as the barrier

that holds them from monitoring their adolescents' use of social media. As for the subtheme,

the adolescents and their parents have different perception of their negative mood when the

devices are taken away. To adolescents in the digital age, taking away the device means

taking away their freedom to connect with their friends. This is more evident in adolescents

who are introverts and have social anxiety. A study by Bonetti et.al (2010) showed that

compared to those who did not self-report being lonely, kids and teenagers who self-reported

feeling lonely chatted online far more frequently about private and intimate subjects. To make

up for their inferior social skills and meet new people, the former were driven to

communicate online far more frequently. Bonetti’s past research findings support this article's

result. In the second subtheme for theme 2, the finding shows the adolescents and their

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parents have different perceptions of why they use social media. Both sides are unaware of

what the other uses the social media for. The parents see the teenagers use social media

because everyone has it, and the adolescents have no idea what their parents use social media

for. To me, this shows that the teenagers and their parents have a communication breakdown

and a lack of empathy. There is no effort to understand the other party's need of social media

and this can cause friction among them.

As for the third theme, the adolescents and their parents had different perceptions of

the quality of time spent together. The adolescents claimed that their parents were not

listening when they tried to tell their parents something when the parents were engaged with

their gadgets. According to Mi (2023), parental phubbing, the act of parents using mobile

phones in the presence of their children instead of engaging with them., was positively

associated with mobile phone addiction. When children do not feel enough emotional

attachment from their parents, they may seek it elsewhere. Nowadays, adolescents often turn

to the mobile phone for the feelings of being loved and respected (Wei et al., 2022b).

The first subtheme in theme 3 mentioned that social media continued to be an issue in

the relationship, regardless of the level of trust between adolescents and parents. The

adolescents are not comfortable to discuss about their social media activities no matter how

much mutual trust they have with their parents.

In the discussion, the authors quote a lot from other studies to support their findings

that show delinquency in an adolescent is heavily influenced by his involvement in social

media. The lack of awareness of the amount of time their child spends on social media is a

major issue. The parents also deny they ignored their children when they engaged in social

media, which differed from what their adolescents said. In addition, the fear of being left out

by their peers cause aggression among adolescence.

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 Some limitations may affect the accuracy of the data collected. The students might

increase their usage of social media due to Covid-19, thus lessening their social interaction.

Schools were closed, and the only medium of communication they had was the social media,

therefore the usage was unavoidable. They might use the social media less if the pandemic

didn’t happen. Interviews via Zoom is also not fully reliable as the participants, the parent

and their adolescent child, might be communicating between the two interviews.

The researchers propose a replication of the study to confirm the result. I think this is

a good idea but should be done in another country with a different ethnography. I also agree

with their suggestion to consider gender differences when doing future research. Males and

females can have different insights into an issue. However, I doubt that researching different

age participants will yield a major difference in the findings.

In conclusion, it is proven in this research that social media does have an impact to

adolescent-parent relationships, but it may not only impact among at-risk youth only, but all

adolescents who are active media social users. A future research that involves a non-at-risk

youth should be conducted so we can see the difference.

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