Abstract

The study investigated thepredictive influence of self-compassion, social support, social media and gender on self-acceptance among school going adolescents in Oyo state, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design of ex-post facto type was adopted. A Simple random sampling was used in the selection of participants, the researcher therefore selected its sample of population using random sampling techniques selected Five (5) secondary schools each from the four (4) educational zones in Oyo state, thirty (30) students were then selected each from the various schools. On the whole, a total of six hundred (600) students were used for the research. Both the independent and dependent variables were measured with appropriate instruments which includes The Unconditional Self-Acceptance Scale (α =.72), Self-Compassion Scale (α =.87), Social Support Scale (α =.85), and Social Network Usage Questionnaire (α =.89). Data obtained were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that self-acceptance among school going adolescents is significantly correlated withself-compassion (r= .502; p<.01), social support (r= .423; p<.01)andsocial media (r= .091; p<.05), but no significant correlation was observed for gender (r= .001; p>.01). Also, the result showed that the independent variables accounted for 27.3% (Adj. R2= .273) variance in the prediction of self-acceptance. In term of magnitude of contribution, Self-compassion made the most significant contribution (Beta= .905; t= 8.655;p<0.05) to the prediction followed by Social support (Beta= .430; t= 4.118;p<0.05), Social media (Beta= .054; t= = 1.501; p<0.05) and lastly gender which had no significant contribution (Beta= .010; t= .2776;p>0.05). Therefore, on the basis of the findings, it is recommended that parents, guardians and other stakeholders should be enlightened on the effect of unproductive use of social media by the adolescents, school counselors should intensify their efforts and provide more information on the implications of the identified factors on self-acceptance.