Relationship between Self-Esteem in Adolescence to Avatar Creation of Actual and Idealized Selves
Abstract
This study examined the linkages pertaining to 14- to 17-year-old adolescent girls’ assessment of their self-esteem as influenced by their sense of connection to the creation of both an actual self-avatar and an idealized self-avatar. Students in ninth, 10th, and 11th grades were posed questions pertaining to their self-esteem and physical appearance prior to and after avatar creation and queried about their level of connectedness to their avatars. Correlational analyses revealed that as adolescent girls made more modifications to their avatars, they reported decreased self-esteem levels and satisfaction with their physical appearance post-avatar creation. The results of two multiple regressions indicated levels of virtual self-discrepancy, or how far their avatars were from their actual selves, predicted self-esteem and physical appearance scores post-avatar creation. Follow-up correlational analyses revealed that those adolescent girls who rated their ideal avatar as most similar to their real avatar reported higher levels of self-esteem and satisfaction with their physical appearance post-avatar creation.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Developmental psychology|Psychology
Recommended Citation
Burke, Lauren Rauch, "Relationship between Self-Esteem in Adolescence to Avatar Creation of Actual and Idealized Selves" (2017). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI10604284.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI10604284
