Investigation of the relationship between high school adolescents' perception of gender and social media addiction and moral identity levels

In this study, it was aimed to use a moderation model to determine whether gender perception, social media addictions and moral identity levels of high school adolescents are related, and to determine how much social media addiction affects this relationship when moral identity and gender perception variables are related. The sample of the study in the relational survey model was selected by random sampling method. In this context, a total of 1113 students from Anatolian, Science, Imam Hatip and Vocational Technical High Schools in Ankara participated in the study. "Personal Information Form", "Gender Role Perception Adolescent Form", "Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale" and "Moral Identity Scale" were used as data collection tools. It was evaluated whether adolescents' gender perception, social media addiction and moral identity levels differed according to gender, school type, grade level, family type, birth order, number of siblings, mother and father education level, working status of parents, parental union, perceived income level and perceived family attitude. In addition, because of the research, a small positive relationship was found between adolescents' egalitarian gender perception and moral identity levels, and between egalitarian gender perception and social media addiction levels. At the same time, a small positive relationship was found between traditional gender perception and moral identity levels, and between traditional gender perception and social media addiction levels. A small negative relationship was found between moral identity and social media addiction. Since the relationship between moral identity and gender perception was determined, the moderation role of social media addiction was examined by path analysis to determine how much social media addiction affects this relationship. The findings obtained because of the research were interpreted and discussed based on the literature.