2026-09-23T11:00:59Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129812 2025-10-25 col_2142_5131 col_2142_8800 com_2142_5130 com_2142_5132

application/pdf en text Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms The student, Erin Budesheim, accepted the attached license on 2025-05-06 at 10:24. The student, Erin Budesheim, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-05-06 at 10:28. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-05-12 at 11:13. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22226 on 2025-10-20 at 16:57:01 A self-determination theory approach to emerging adult well-being and social media use Budesheim, Erin F. 2025-05-12 Napolitano, Chris Napolitano, Chris Rounds, James Ratner, Kaylin Cosme, Danielle Haritatos, Jana Emerging Adulthood Social Media Well-being eng Emerging adulthood (ages 18-29), a phase marked by identity exploration and transition, has witnessed a troubling surge in mental health issues coinciding with the social media boom. In this dissertation I sought to understand the interplay between social media use and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as it relates to emerging adults’ well-being by focusing on how emerging adults use social media to promote their well-being. In Chapter 2 I proposed that SDT provides an opportunity to understand emerging adult well-being and social media and may be utilized to promote healthy social media practices. In my first empirical study in Chapter 3, I conducted text analyses, quadratic regressions, and generalized additive models (GAMs) to explore the trends in relatedness content in emerging adults’ tweets during the COVID-19 pandemic. I found significant changes in relatedness during the Black Lives Matter Movement during 2020 and around the 2021 conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. In Chapter 4, my second empirical study, I explored how types of social media goals related to SDT (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) impacted emerging adults’ well-being after Instagram use. I found that relatedness and autonomy goals improved well-being outcomes. The focus of this dissertation was to demonstrate that emerging adults can use social media in healthy ways to meet their basic psychological needs. 2025-08 Text https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129812 Copyright 2025 Erin Budesheim Educational Psychology Educational Psychology University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. Dissertation