The Effect of Social Media on Aggressive Behaviors of Palestinian University Students
Date
2023-05-16
Authors
Mirna Mustafa
Akram Amro
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University - Deanship of Scientific Research
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of social networking sites on the aggressive behavior of university students. This study was guided by three research questions:
1-What is the role of social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others in promoting aggressive behaviors among university students?
2-What are violent films, programs, videos and games promoting behaviors among university students?
3-What is the most used and affected site on aggressive student behavior?
Methods: Descriptive research design was adopted. A descriptive survey aimed at collecting data on and describing in a systematic manner the characteristics, features and facts about a given population. An inferential quantitative method was applied. The sample consisted of a group of young people who use social networking sites. They were selected in a simple random method. Their number is estimated at (80) individuals with a university level of education and they differ
in terms of gender and age. Multivariate statistical methods were used to answer the research questions. An online survey was conducted using a questionnaire disseminated among university students in Palestine. It included items related to the use and impact of social media, and items with offensive aspects, and it is emphasized that data will be used for scientific purposes only. A two-sections questionnaire was used, the first is the Buss-Perry Aggression scale , which is a
questionnaire was designed by Arnold H. Buss and Mark Perry ( 1992 ) , professors from the University of Texas at Austin which measures different types of hostility between people and it consist of 29 items for measuring aggressive behaviors including 4 dimensions – physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility. The inventory used a Likert answering system. Study subjects/respondents were asked to select the choice that best suited them from the following options: 1- extremely uncharacteristic, 2-somewhat uncharacteristic, 3- somewhat characteristics and 4-extremely characteristics (where the rating is out of 1 which is extremely uncharacteristic to 4 which is extremely characteristics). The
Cronbach reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.71. The second section of the questionnaire consists of questions to find out the most used social media and its impact and the effect of watching violent videos on student behavior. This was structured on a 4-point scale ranging from strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree.