Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Benerd School of Education

First Advisor

Justin Low, Ph.D.

First Committee Member

Amy Scott Brown, Ph.D.

Second Committee Member

Anne Zeman, Ed.D.

Abstract

Adolescence is a time period when major developments occur with respect to adolescents’ physical, emotional and cognitive capabilities, and such developments ultimately make it a pivotal time for a person’s identity formation and understanding of interpersonal relationships. In today’s world, social media is extremely popular, especially among adolescents, and it has influenced their behaviors, perceptions and interactions with others. With TikTok, a social media platform, gaining popularity in recent years and overwhelmingly so among adolescents, researchers began researching the general impact of TikTok on adolescents’ mental health. Some researchers have begun exploring niche research topics related to the impact of TikTok on adolescents’ mental health, including body dissatisfaction.

One subtopic that remained largely unexplored is TikTok’s impact on adolescents’ perceptions of love and romantic relationships irrespective of the fact that adolescence is a pivotal developmental time for individuals. Thus, this study examines TikTok’s influences on adolescents’ perceptions of love and romantic relationships. It also sought to understand the prevalent themes regarding TikTok’s impact on male adolescents’ and female adolescents’ perceptions of love and romantic relationships.

The researcher designed this study as an exploratory grounded theory research. The researcher recruited 30 participants from the study site between the ages of 13 years old and 17 years old. Out of the 30 participants, 19 participants were female (63%) and 11 participants were male (37%). The participants completed surveys with open-ended questions on TikTok content related to love and romantic relationships. Using the Ünlü-Qureshi instrument to analyze the data, the researcher found that TikTok has an impact on adolescents’ romantic relationships and self-image in relationships. Through a review all codes, concepts and categories and corresponding data, the researcher also found that adolescents were aware of how TikTok’s portrayals of love and romantic relationships do not reflect reality and how behaviors or ideas learned from TikTok were unfair, and certain perceptions of TikTok content on love and romantic relationships differed between male and female adolescents.

These findings may serve as a basis for further research on TikTok’s impact on adolescents’ perceptions of love and romantic relationships and relationship satisfaction. These findings may also help mental health practitioners determine how to properly assess, consider, and address such influences through psychological services for adolescents and other individuals with adolescents in their lives (e.g., individuals working with adolescents and parents) better support the adolescents in their lives.

Pages

136

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