Psychological Well-Being of High School Students Depending on the Status of Virtual Identity

Abstract

Background. In the modern world, it has become customary to present self-image not only in real life, but also in the digital world through social media profiles, which has led to the emergence of a virtual identity. Virtual self-presentation is evaluated by other users, which is important for students to create and maintain their online identity. This affects the feeling of self-acceptance and the associated psychological well-being, determining the further development of students’ personality. Identifying the relationship between the status of virtual identity and psychological well-being is also necessary to deepen theoretical understanding of the factors affecting the psychological well-being of the younger generation in the modern world.

Objective. The purpose of this study is to identify differences in the level of psychological well-being and its components among high school students with different virtual identity status.

Study Participants. The study involved 232 students of grades 9–11 of the Lyceum of Kazan (103 boys and 129 girls) aged from 15 to 18 years.

Methods. The “Methodology for assessing virtual identity statuses”, the “Adolescent Psychological Well-being Scale” and the “PERMA-Profiler” were used to collect the data. The significance of the differences was determined using the Mann — Whitney U-test.

Results. The comparison of high school students with different virtual identity statuses revealed both significantly different and similar virtual identity statuses in terms of psychological well-being. The group with the status of a moratorium experiences the lowest rates of well-being, while the one with the status of a predetermined virtual identity shows the highest rates of well-being. No differences were found between the statuses of achieved and diffuse virtual identity, and the statuses of moratorium and diffuse virtual identity differ only on two of the seventeen scales of psychological well-being.

Conclusions. The psychological well-being of high school students varies depending on the achieved status of virtual identity on the Internet.