Effect of Facebook on depression

The effects of Facebook on depression in young adults

Australian Catholic University Bachelor of Art and Social work, School of Arts and Sciences, Australian Catholic Universtity.

Abstract

This report was conducted to evaluate the links between social media sites such as, the effects of Facebook on depression in today’s youth. The Patient Health Questionnaire. 9 and a Diary was the method use to collect data.
60 psychology students experienced whether more time spent on Facebook led to depression. All the participants recorded their Facebook usage in their diary and completed a (PHQ.9) depression screen. The participants included 30 females and 30 males, the means age was 18-25 (M = 20.95, SD = 2.11).
The result showed that when comparing the lower and higher usage there was a significant difference in the hours spent on Facebook, t(58) = 12.23, p < .001, with low-users spending significantly less time on the social networking site than high-users. Higher users obtained a significantly lower depression score as indicated by the PHQ-9 than low-users, t(58) = 4.11, p < .001. This implies that the more time spent on Facebook doesn’t lead to depression therefore my hypotheses was not supported.

Introduction

The effects of Facebook on depression in young adults

Social media sites have not only become the most popular usage of the Internet activities among today’s youth, it’s set to generate more than just entertainment and communication; 70% of adolescent login to Facebook daily (Jelenchink, Eickoff & Moreno, 2013). Research suggest that a number of youth spend the majority of the time online, further evidence show that today’s youth values their online relationship to a high important part of their everyday lives (Subrahmanyam, Smahel & Greenfield, 2006). Social media is considered to be sites that allow communication such as, text messaging, photograph, sharing information and games (O’keeffe, Clarke-Pearson and Council on communicate, 2011). It has been suggested that social media sites such as Facebook could lead to depression. One of the theories is that, the amount of time spent on Facebook has the capability to increase chance of depression. Particular symptom of signs of depression includes depending on peer from Facebook for social acceptance (Subrahmanyam, Smahel & Greenfield, 2006). Depression is at the top of the many psychiatric problems facing today’s youth, depression is closely linkup to “function impairment, suicide and psychiatric, comorbidity” and other factors that could result in future employments, abuse and legal troubles ( Stice, Ragan & Randall, 2004, ). Nevertheless other studies showed that, that Facebook encourage peers communication and self-esteem ( Selfhout, M. Branje, Delsing, Bogt, & Meeus, (2009) ). Findings suggest that, relationship are build through Facebook which give social support (Wellman, Witte & Hampton, 2001).

Several researches suggests, social media sites such as Facebook could lead to depression however others argue Facebook increases peers relationship. As a result of this current discrepancy, the study will provide a clear insight into how Facebook may or may not lead to depression. It was predicted that the more time spent on Facebook, the higher define behave level of depression would be than those that spent define as 7 hours plus on Facebook, as measured by the patient health questioner 9.

Method

Participants Participants were two groups of 60 members from the Australian Catholic University Brisbane campus, under going the Psychology B unit: 101, including 30 Females and 30 Males. The mean age of participant range from 18-25 (M = 20.95, SD = 2.11)

Materials

The participants completed a Patient Health Questionnaire, comprising two experimental groups on the usage of Facebook and depression (Spitzer, William & Kroenke, 2002). A sample question from the PHQ.9 is (how often did you have “little interest or pleasure in doing things”). Subject responded to each question on a 0- 24 scoring system, from 0-4= normal; 20-27= several depressed. All participants kept a diary for a week to regain accurate measures of their weekly Facebook usage. Group 1 consists of subjects who use Facebook for less than the average 7hours per week (lower usage) while Group 2 (higher usage) spent more than 7hours per week on the average.
Procedure
Undergraduate students from a psychology B 101 class to complete a experiment. The study inquired participant to rate the 9-statements form the PHQ9 on a scale of 1=(not at all) 4 =(nearly every day). Items included in the statements were, “over the last two weeks I have had little interest or pleasure in doing things” and “over the last two weeks I have had trouble concentrating on thing, such as reading the new paper or watching TV. All participants completed the recorded the Facebook usage.
Results
Prior to conducting statistical analyses, descriptive statistics were obtained for both the independent variable of number of hours on Facebook per week and dependent variable of PHQ-9 score (see Table 1). This indicated that the low-users of Facebook spent an average 9.95 hours less per week using Facebook than those who were identified as high-users. With regards to depression score, the PHQ-9 indicated that those low-users demonstrated an average score indicating moderate depression while those who were high-users have an average score indicating the symptoms of mild depression.
Table 1
Descriptive Statistics of the Number of Hours Spent on Facebook Per Week and the PHQ-9 Score for Low-Users and High-Users of Facebook.

Hours Spent on Facebook

PHQ-9 Score

Mean
SD
Mean
SD

Low-Users
3.38
1.90
12.93
8.17

High-Users
13.33
3.81
5.57
5.42
Note: PHQ-9: Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 items To further examine the relationship between time spent on Facebook and depression, a series of independent t-tests were conducted. In comparing the usage of the low-users and high-users, a significant difference was found in the number of hours spent of Facebook, t(58) = 12.23, p < .001, with low-users spending significantly less time on the social networking site than high-users. Furthermore, high-users had a significantly lower depression score as indicated by the PHQ-9 than low-users, t(58) = 4.11, p < .001. This indicates that the greater amount of time spent on Facebook, the lower the number of depression symptoms. Thus, it casts doubt on the existence of “Facebook depression” within the current sample.

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to explore whether the amount of time spent on Facebook led to depression. Participants were given a Patient Health Questionair.9 to measure their level of depression and a diary to record a week usage of Facebook. The results showed the more time spent on Facebook doesn’t not lead to depression, therefore my hypotheses was not supported.

There was meaningful difference between the times spent on Facebook but age was not a significant factor in determining depression. The finding that A higher level of Facebook usage doesn’t lead to depression, Contrary to expectations after the (PHQ9.) and the diaries results of a week Facebook usage were calculated they were not likely to experiences depression. Rather it increases self-esteem and builds relationships between peers ( Selfhout et al., 2009).
Other results argues that “One theoretical approach to this phenomenon is that Internet use robs individuals of their social activities and might intervene with the development and maintenance of social relationships” (Selfhout et al., 2009). Numbers of studies discovered the usage of internet is links deeply with an increasing amount of depression for youths and adults ( Selfhout et al., 2009 ). Consequently the experiment didn’t specified what ‘Facebook usage’ meant, whether it was being active and suffrving the net or just login in. Future research should state the time when it was conducted. One limitation method to consider is, increase the length of the diary collection data from one week to over a month to obtain a fair results. The effect of Facebook and depression could be use by teachers and lecturer that want to consider social media site as teaching tools to enhance students abilities, relationship and communication skills.
In conclusion to this, the study conformed that the longer time spend on Facebook doesn’t necessary lead to depression. Nonetheless, our findings have important implications of some symptoms but according to the result social media sites such as Facebook don’t conclude to depression.