Personal Determinants of Selfie Addiction in High-School Students

Modern young people live in the dynamically changing world, in conditions of constant changes in the sphere of public life and, especially in personal terms and the sharp change of habitual stereotypes. The specificity of age aspects and psychological characteristics in adolescence contributes to the expansion of the number of addicts. It is the desire to assert oneself, to know oneself more, the formation of worldview and moral convictions that sometimes contribute to the loss of a sense of security, the emergence of fear of reality, and the distortion of ideas about the image of the “selfness”. Selfie craze among young people has become a "global catastrophe". Today it is hard to find young people who would not take pictures of themselves and would not post photos on various social networks, chats. And it is crucial for a young person to receive feedback from their friends who have seen the post. In this regard, the issues of studying the psychological characteristics of persons suffering from various forms of addictive disorders are gaining relevance in science, since the presence of addiction is due to the personality characteristics and the accompanying negative emotions (irresponsibility, uncertainty, anxiety), its environment and interaction with people. At the same time, there are almost no scientific papers on the study of personality characteristics prone to selfie addiction; most of the works are only of indirect, fragmentary nature. The authors of the current paper analyzed various approaches, etiology, mechanisms, symptoms of development and risk factors for the formation of selfie addiction in high school students, and presented the results of a study of the personal determinants of high-school boys’ and girls’ selfie addiction. The purpose of the research is to study the personal characteristics of children’s prone to selfie addiction. Research methods: theoretical methods, including theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, comparison and generalization of experience; empirical methods (experiment, testing, questioning and diagnostic methods, observation); data processing methods (quantitative and qualitative analysis). The diagnostic tools were chosen taking into account the components of the structure of the anti-addictive attitude to the emergence of selfie addiction, which determine the personal determinants of the manifestation of selfie addiction. The study involved 172 students (aged 16-18) of secondary schools of the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia), of which 93 were girls and 79 were boys. As a result of the study, it was revealed that 37.2% of respondents have signs of selfie addiction, while girls are most prone to addictive behavior. Gender differences in potential addicts in the manifestation of a tendency to selfie addiction were found in the assessment of the meaningfulness of life, satisfaction with their personal characteristics, self-esteem, and the level of knowledge about self-dependence. The results of the study, the author's methods for identifying the level of formation of selfie addiction and the selection of diagnostic tools for studying the anti-addictive attitude to the emergence of selfie addiction can be successfully used in the practice of correctional and preventive work of teachers and psychologists of educational and social institutions.