Measures of Social Media Use Motives During Adolescence

Abstract: In recent decades, social media has become an integral part of adolescents’ daily life, reshaping peer interactions. To overcome the limitations of the quantitative approach of adolescents’ social media use when investigating relationships with psychological outcomes, motivational factors have become increasingly popular. The first aim was to review the psychometric properties of existent tools used to measure adolescents’ social media use motives. The second objective was to elaborate a classification of the main motives among adolescents. Following PRISMA guidelines, 14 articles were reviewed based on the search of 5 databases. Psychometric properties were examined based on the COSMIN guidelines. The reviewed articles showed a heterogeneous process, with only two of them considered as a satisfying procedure of development and validation. Based on the Use and Gratification Theory, a classification of the five main motives for adolescents’ social media use was developed. Overall, this study encourages the pursuit of studies on social media use among adolescence, while carefully choosing a tool with satisfying psychometric properties.