The relationship between social media addiction and depression among the undergraduates of Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka

Abstract

In recent years social media has become a significant asset of students’ life. Their life now relies on social media to interact with each other. Consequently, it turns into the basic need for them. Social media is a platform that assist a user to connect with other users through simple internet access (F. O. F. H. Sciences, 2023) Social media addiction is a behavioural addiction characterised by as being excessively concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrolled urge to use it that impairs the users’ behaviour pattern. Depression is a depressive disorder characterised by sadness, loss of pleasure, feeling of guilty, disturbed sleep or appetite. According to the World Health Organisation more than 264 million people suffer from depression. Evidence suggest that using social media can adversely affect its user’s mental health, mainly the young generation. (F. O. F. H. Sciences, 2023) This study aim to find out the most used social media platform, the level of social media addiction, severity of depression and the relationship between social media addiction and depression among the undergraduate of FHCS. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect the data after the pilot study. Addiction level assessed by using “ Social Networking Addiction scale “.And the severity of the depression was assessed by using PHQ-9 scale . The ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of FHCS, EUSL.405 undergraduates of FHCS, EUSL participated in this study. Data was analysed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 27.Out of 405 participants, the most used platform was WhatsApp (98%). According to the study 38.3% of the participants had addiction to social media while 61.7% of them were not addicted to social media. The study finding also showed that 65.2% of the participants were having some degree of depression and 34.8% of them were not having depression. The relationship between social media addiction and depression among participants was analysed by using Pearson Chi Square test. The test revealed that there is a significant moderate association between social media addiction and depression. (Likelihood ratio = 47.272, df = 4, P < 0.001, Cramer's V = 0. 340). A pairwise Z test using Bonferroni method showed that moderately severe & severe depression levels were associated with addiction and no depression cases were associated with no addiction. (P < 0.05, Adjusted Residual > - 2.807). From this study, we found that there is a significant moderate association between social media addiction and depression among the undergraduates of FHCS, EUSL. As social media is a popular and communicative platform among users world widely & the undergraduates are one of the risk groups to develop depression, there is a need for the important implications for future research and interventions. Apart from that, from this study there's a high prevalence of depression among undergraduates. Based on our study findings, it seems like there is a need to pay attention and take necessary actions to support the undergraduate students to manage depression by the university, parents or others. Further, future studies could focus on assessing the impact on academic performance, heath conditions and appropriate strategies for the management of depression.