Social Media Use and Signs of Mental Health Problems: A Representitive Study Among Truman State University Students

 

Aly M. Zuhler
Dr. Paul Shapiro and Dr. Amber Johnson, Faculty Mentors

Does social media use have an effect on the mental health of college students? The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social media and mental health and how gender impacts this relationship. The goal is to see if there are differences between genders and their overall mental health symptom scores and the overall number of social media sites they use. An emailed survey was administered to 172 students who attended Truman State University in the Fall of 2018. In addition to descriptive analyses, bivariate analyses were run using ANOVAs, Pearson R correlations, and t-tests. Statistical significant findings show that females use more social media sites than males, racial minorities use more social media sites than white respondents, and respondents who spend more time on social media sites have a higher score of mental health symptoms. 

Keywords: Social Media, Mental Health

Topic(s):Sociology

Presentation Type: Poster

Session: TBA
Location: TBA
Time: TBA