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The Relationship between the Use of Facebook and School Achievement, and the
Subjective Well-Being of Pre-adolescents and Adolescents

Lidija Jerković
Prvomajski bulevar A-9, Sombor

one third spends more than 4 hours socializing with friends
outside FB. Within the sample of students, 91% have a FB
Introduction account; 43% of them have between 500 and 1000, while
17% have over 1000 friends on FB; 60% spend up to 2
Subjective well-being (SWB) is an evaluation of one's own hours a day on FB; two thirds have 110 likes per picture
life contained from the cognitive (life satisfaction) and on average, while 4% have over 500 likes.
affective (positive and negative affect) components
(Diener, 2000). It has been used for investigation of the Testing the Hypotheses
quality of life of an individual, a community and society.
The aim of this research is to examine if there is a 1. The results show that school achievement is not directly
relationship between students' SWB, achievement at related to SWB, only under certain conditions. Positive
school, and use of Facebook (FB), and if so, what is its relation between school achievement and positive affect
nature, given that these are two important activities in (R=.18, p<.05) was found only in younger students
students' lives. Some research shows that there is a circular (without high school seniors), and in students who rarely
relationship between SWB and school achievements – use active (R=.21, p<.05) and passive (R=.26, p<.01)
happier students have higher grades, which in turn increase forms of using FB. Positive relation between achievement
the level of SWB (Quinn & Duckworth, 2007). Thus far, and life satisfaction exists in students who rarely browse
research on the connectedness of the use of FB and SWB on FB (R=.27, p<.01), or rarely post photos (R=.21,
mostly point out the negative aspects of using FB, though p<.05).
results that the use of FB has a positive effect on SWB 2. Hypothesis 2a was not confirmed. The results show that
also exist (Valenzuela et al., 2009). there is a significant relation between the intensity and the
type of FB use and the students’ SWB. The negative affect
is positively related to the frequency of logging into FB
Methodology during studying (F=3.124, p<.05) and with posting photos
(β=.278, p<.01). Greater FB addiction is related to lower
A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 185 life satisfaction (β=-.17, p<.05), lower positive affect (β=-
students (43.8% male) of an elementary school and the .26, p<.01) and higher negative affect (β=.33, p<.05). The
Grammar School in Sombor. There were 68 seventh grade students who do not use FB experience positive affect
elementary school students, 76 second year high school more often (F=4.507, p<.05). The students who socialize
students and 41 fourth year high school student. The more outside of FB also have a higher level of positive
instruments used were: VPDM scale for Serbian affect (F=2.723, p<.05).
population (only the Subscale for addiction on FB, α=.86);
Korolev scale of 15 items for assessing the types of FB use
FB (α=.87); Diner’s scale for assessing affect, SPANE Conclusion
(subscale of positive affect, α=.87 and of negative affect,
α=.81); The Serbian version of the scale for assessing life The results contribute to the understanding of the relation
satisfaction in students, MSLSS (α=.88) and the between two important students’ activities and their SWB.
Questionnaire for demographic information and the School achievement is positively related to SWB, but only
intensity of FB use. In accordance with the findings from in younger students and those who use FB rarely.
literature review, hypotheses were formed: 1. Generally, more frequent use of FB is related to lower
accomplishments at school are positively correlated with level of SWB. Beside the passive form of FB use, the
SWB; 2a. the intensity of using FB is positively correlated active form is also related to the students’ lower SWB,
with SWB, and 2b. the addiction of FB and passive forms which opposes former results. An important finding is that
of FB use are negatively correlated with SWB. The data the more students socialize outside FB the happier they
was analyzed using the IBM SPSS-20 programme. are. These relations need to be explored longitudinally.
Descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, hierarchical
regression analysis, and ANOVA were the methods used.
References

Results 1.Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of
happiness, and a proposal for a national index. American
Descriptive Statistics Psychologist, 55, 34–43.
2.Valenzuela, S., Park, N. & Kee, K.F. (2009). Is there
The students on average get high grades (M=4.23, social capital in a social network site?: Facebook use and
SD=.62); 60% of the students study for up to three hours a college students’ life satisfaction, trust, and participation.
day; around two thirds of the students spend 4 hours, while Journal of Computermediated Communication 14, 875–
901.