Abstract

Emerging adults’ exposure to social networking sites is at a considerable level, and such use may complicate beliefs regarding marriage. However, little is known about whether social media use is an influential factor in shaping emerging adults’ marital beliefs and attitudes toward cohabitation. Thus, we extended previous research by examining the links between the addictive use of social media, marital salience, marital timing, and attitudes toward cohabitation in a sample of undergraduates. A group of 433 never-married university students (347 female and 86 male) aged 18–26 (M = 20.41, SD = 1.48) participated in the study. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the data. The results indicated that social media addiction was not a significant predictor of emerging adults’ marital salience and marital timing beliefs. However, emerging adults’ attitudes toward cohabitation were significantly predicted by social media addiction. The results are discussed in light of the literature, and recommendations are offered.

摘要

新兴成年人对社交网站的接触程度相当高，这种使用可能会使有关婚姻的信念复杂化。然而，人们对社交媒体的使用是否是塑造新兴成年人的婚姻信念和对同居态度的影响因素知之甚少。因此，我们通过检查大学生样本中社交媒体的成瘾使用、婚姻显着性、婚姻时机和对同居的态度之间的联系来扩展先前的研究。一组 433 名未婚大学生（347 名女性和 86 名男性），年龄在 18-26 岁之间（M  = 20.41，SD = 1.48) 参与了研究。进行层次多元回归分析以分析数据。结果表明，社交媒体成瘾不是新兴成年人婚姻显着性和婚姻时间信念的重要预测因素。然而，社交媒体成瘾显着预测了新兴成年人对同居的态度。根据文献讨论结果，并提供建议。