FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL NETWORKING USAGE IN EMERGING ADULTS: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between family environment and social networking usage in emerging adults. It was hypothesized that family environment and social networking usage in emerging adults was correlated with each other. It was also hypothesized that family environment will likely to predict social networking usage controlling for covariates in emerging adults. For this purpose, a correlational study with a cross-sectional research design was used. Non-probability convenient sampling strategy was used to recruit the sample of N=213 from emerging males and females adults with the age range of 18-25 years (M= 20.62 & SD=1.460) from Lahore. Family Environment Scale (FES) (Bhatia & Chada, 1993) Social networking usage questionnaire (SNQ) (Gupta & Bashir, 2018) were used. Results shows that family  environment and social networking usage have negative correlation with each other. Also indicates that family environment predicts social networking usage. Increasing educational level or knowledge about effective usage of social media can help to balance its usage. Introducing awareness programs for adolescents and adults on how to minimize social networking usage and using it in productive and balanced way along with balancing family relationships can be beneficial.