The role of social media on positive youth development: An analysis of 4-H Facebook page and 4-H'ers' positive development

Highlights

• The 4-H's Facebook page increases messages with interactive and visual features.

• The posts facilitate PYD traits, particularly connection, contribution, and confidence.

• The use of 4-H Facebook encourages further civic engagement.

• The 4-H Facebook page provides information and opportunities, while groups empower Youth-led Activities.

• Youth organizations can strategically communicate and foster PYD via social media.

Abstract

With the hope of raising children to become responsible and active citizens with upstanding values, many youth-related organizations have focused their efforts on providing quality opportunities to encourage early participation in civic engagements. Many organizations actively engage in social media to fulfill their goals most effectively. Social media offer the potential to promote those opportunities, communicate with youth, and eventually facilitate positive youth development. Considering the importance of social media among youth, it is critical to understand how to use it as a tool to foster youth development. Therefore, utilizing the positive youth development (PYD) framework, this study examines the role of Facebook communications in developing six traits—competence, confidence, connection, character, compassion, and contribution—and their effects on youth civic engagement by analyzing a 4-H club case. Mixed methods are used to conduct a two-step study. The first step analyzes communication patterns of the national 4-H Facebook page through content analysis of posts from 2009 to early 2015. For the second step, seven in-depth interviews were conducted with recent 4-H alumni, who used the official 4-H Facebook page during their period of membership. The findings emphasized the critical role of social media in fostering positive development of youth and future civic engagement, and practical implications are discussed.

Introduction

Youth, persons who are between the ages of 15–24 (UNESCO, n.d.), is a critical period in terms of physical and mental development and a time for learning important qualities and values necessary to become a responsible citizen or future leader (Fraley et al., 2013, Lee and Cole, 2009). People who establish a good set of virtues during this period often demonstrate active civic engagement, sustain positive attitudes, and undertake responsibilities that indicate their possibilities as future leaders in society (Schmidt, Shumow, & Kackar, 2007). Researchers and educators have explored diverse media to effectively foster positive development and proper values. Social media, which are ingrained communication tools among youth, have received tremendous attention (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010).

Given young people's technical capacities and exploratory spirit, social media are particularly imperative tools for youth. In this era of fast-changing technology, youth naturally develop the ability to learn and absorb new technologies and become the primary consumers of social media (Liang et al., 2010, Lusk, 2010). Additionally, geared up with various smart technologies, youth are enabled to constantly tap into social media through various applications, making it an essential part of their daily lives (Basat, 2010, Kushin, 2009). According to the Pew Research Center's Teens Relationship Survey (Pew Research Center, 2015), 71% of online teenagers were already engaged in more than one social media channel, ranked from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and more than half (56%) of teens between 13 and 17 reported that they go online at least several times a day or almost constantly. The reliance on and popularity of social media among youth continue to increase, leaving it as the most convenient way to communicate and interact with children and adolescents.

Social media have also demonstrated significant potential as effective tools to facilitate positive youth development and encourage civic engagement. Prior research revealed social media as helpful tools to build closer relationships with publics (Taylor et al., 2001, Waters et al., 2009), educate about environmental or philanthropic concerns, and foster engagement and dialogue regarding campaigns and issues (Bresciani and Schmeil, 2012, Briones et al., 2011, Lovejoy et al., 2012, Smith, 2010, Waters and Lo, 2012). The positive functions of social media indicate their potential to be a channel to foster positive youth development (PYD), which emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities and services to youth in order to draw positive outcomes and developments for youth (Park, Rodgers, & Stemmle, 2011). According to the framework, six traits are critical for positive development of youth—competence, confidence, connection, character, caring or compassion, and contribution (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003). Considering the critical role of social media among youth, these 6Cs can be facilitated through educational messages, interactions, and empowerment via social media.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of a youth-related organization's social media communications in positive youth development. Despite the increasing role of social media and popularity of its use among youth-serving organizations, little has been established regarding how youth-related organizations are using social media and how those communications affect youth development. Therefore, this study investigates social media communication practices of a youth-related organization, the 4-H Club. The 4-H club is one of the oldest and largest youth organizations in the United States, which provides diverse educational programs to facilitate positive youth development and civic engagement (USDA, 2014). The study employed two methods to examine the role of social media in promoting positive youth development. First, a content analysis was conducted as to explore what and how 4-H communicates through Facebook by analyzing the posts of the national 4-H Facebook page from 2009 through the first quarter of 2015. Then in-depth interviews were conducted with recent 4-H alumni who had used the 4-H Facebook page during their membership. Through investigations of social media usage patterns by the youth-serving organization and its possible impact, the research is expected to provide insights for public relations practitioners of other nonprofit organizations, and for-profit sectors as well, in terms of valuable and practical ways to use social media for youth civic engagement.