An Investigation of the Factors That Affect High School Students’ Attitudes Towards Social Media by CHAID Analysis*

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the level of attitude of high school students towards social media and the variables that have an effect on these attitudes. Research Methods: In this study, the relational screening model was the descriptive method that was used. The data were collected by the “Social Media Attitude Scale.” In the data analysis, the two-step cluster analysis and CHAID analysis (Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector) were used. Findings: According to the results of the CHAID analysis, the most effective variable on high school students’ attitudes towards social media was “students’ dream job.” The other variables that affected attitudes towards social media were as follows: student’s grade level, having a computer, the purpose of computer use, the mother’s educational level, the father’s educational level and the father’s job. In addition, it was found that students had a moderate attitude towards social media. The effect size and relational degree for each significant variable was calculated. Implications for Research and Practice: As a result of the analyses, it was found that the level of high school students’ attitudes towards social media was a moderate/threshold level and that their dream jobs had an effect on these attitudes. In order to determine whether these variables had significance in practice, the effect sizes and relational degrees for each significant variable were calculated. According to the calculations, effect sizes were large and medium, and their relational degrees were also high and moderate