Investigating Social Networking's Influence on Depression: A Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of quantitative studies addressing the link between social networking and depression. It begins with a research question, study aims, and hypothesis, followed by a description of an appropriate experimental research design. The report specifies study variables, including time spent on social networking and different social networking features. It outlines the study population, eligibility criteria, and sampling methods, including the use of academic databases and systematic reviews. The study instruments and data collection methods are described, along with a discussion of study components and analysis required. The report also addresses the limitations of the proposed study, ethical implications, and clinical implications, emphasizing the complex relationship between social networking and depression and the need for careful consideration of cultural heterogeneity and potential biases. The analysis includes the use of quantitative data analysis to determine the relationship between online social networking and depression.

Research
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Table of Contents
1. A research question, study aims or hypothesis. .....................................................................3
2. An appropriate study design to address the research question, study aim or hypothesis. ......3
3. Specify the study variables (what factors will the study measure?).......................................4
4. The study population, eligibility criteria and sampling methods............................................5
5. Describe the study instruments you intend to use to collect data, and methods you intend to
use to collect data. ......................................................................................................................5
6. Describe study components such as the intervention or therapeutic agent or exposure of
interest. .......................................................................................................................................5
quantitative studies addressing the link between social networking and depression..................6
In the present study ....................................................................................................................6
7. Analysis required for data collection......................................................................................6
8.Limitation of the proposed study ............................................................................................7
9. Ethical implication for this study............................................................................................7
10. Describe clinical implications of this study. ........................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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1. A research question, study aims or hypothesis.
The aim of research is to study quantitative studies addressing the link between social
networking and depression.
Objectives
 To understand the significance of online social networking
 To identify the reason behind depression
 To analyse the link between online social networking sites and depression.
 To recommend strategies to overcome chances of depression that occur due to online
social networking.
Research questions
 What is the significance of online social networking?
 What are the reason behind depression?
 What is the link between online social networking sites and depression?
 What are the strategies to overcome chances of depression that occur due to online social
networking?
Online social networking is known as the process of developing and engaging with a virtual
network of people with whom one has articulated a personal connection within the online
environment of an SNS. Research question which are developed on the basis of the aim of the
study that are as follows Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis.
2. An appropriate study design to address the research question, study aim or hypothesis.
For the selected study experimental research design will be used in order to address the
research questions, study aims. The experimental research design is considered as a blue print of
the procedure which enables investigator to test the hypothesis through reaching the valid results
around the relationship between dependent and independent variable (Kutty and Rajendran,
2017). Hence it can consider as a conceptual framework in which the experiment is conducted.
There are some steps which are involved in experimental research design which help in making
research effective. Further, a true experimental research design is those in which a scholar has
controlled over the unnecessary variables and it can forecast surely that the observed effect on
the dependable variable is because of manipulation of the independent variable. Further, it has
three basic characteristics that are control, manipulation and randomization. In randomization,
every subject gets an equal chance of being assigned to experimental or of study subjects on a
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random basis (Meredith and Perkoski, 2015). If randomisation method is used in the study then it
reduces or removes the chances of bias. It is basically used in true experimental research design
in order to reduce the threat of internal validity of the research and remove the effect of
extraneous variables on the depended variables. Apart from this manipulation is refer to the
conscious control of independent variable which is done through treatment of intervention. For
observing the effects on the dependent variable. It is a conscious act by the investigator where
the researcher observed the effect which has manipulation on the dependent variables. At last,
control is one of other elements of true experimental design (Kaynak, 2015). It is referring to the
control group which controls the effect of extraneous variables on the dependent variables.
3. Specify the study variables (what factors will the study measure?).
There are two different types of variables on which researcher has focused that are dependent
and independent variables. Some of the specific variables are as follows
 Time spend on social networking sites.
 Different social networking features that are Facebook friends,
 The frequency of social networking behaviours for instance self-portrait photographs
shared on Facebook.
For identifying the significant associations between online social networking and depression
there are some variables selected that are as offline behaviour, working usage behaviour, time
spent using.
Apart from this, depression was shown to be influenced by the large number of variables such
as issues of reporting creating difficulties in measuring the validity of findings etc (Liew, 2014).
in the selected study the factors that may mediate or moderate the relationship and help in
measuring are categories such as using variables and social factors. The usage variables are
known as frequency quality and type of SNS use.
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4. The study population, eligibility criteria and sampling methods
Based on the relevance to the concepts under review academic database were selected.
The 5 databases such as PsycINFO, web of science CINAHL etc are the database that were
identified. The systematic review of empirical studies of n=30 is being used for this research and
also it will mainly focus on the relationship in between online social networking and symptom of
depression. The articles were required to make use of a quantitative design in order to be eligible
for inclusion(Smith, 2015). By the age group,, gender, publication date etc the articles were not
excluded but the articles were excluded if not available in English. In order to capture the
relevant literature he searches for online social networking and depression were run in databases.
In order to conduct this research the STROBE statement tolls for cross-sectional studies was
used and the total number of participant across all the review studies was 35,044.From the 14
countries the research was conducted.
5. Describe the study instruments you intend to use to collect data, and methods you intend to
use to collect data.
For the selected research that is to study quantitative studies addressing the link between
social networking and depression. Academic databased were chosen which is based on their
relevance e to the concepts under review. There are five databases which were identified
PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE. Due to the nature of the
relationship between online social networking and depression which is complex. Along with this
it also received considerable attention in previous studies (Kaynak, 2015). For the present, the
article was therefore required to use a quantitative design which compares the measures of SNS
use and depression. Different terms for online social networking were trialed at the time of initial
scoping exercise. There are some such terms which are included in the study that are online
social media, online social network, Twitter, and depression. etc.
6. Describe study components such as the intervention or therapeutic agent or exposure of
interest.
In the article, researcher has reviewed 30 studies and total number of participants across
all reviewed studies was 35044. Fourteen countries were involved in the studies which includes,
Korea, Philippines, Serbia, Turkey, Greece and Australia which reflects the global nature of
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phenomenon under study. The age of participants were ranging from 15 years to 88 years. The
participants including diverse population involving haemodialysis patients, high school and
college students, working age adults and earthquake survivors (Kutty and Rajendran, 2017). All
studies demonstrate the relationship between social networking and depression, albeit some
concentrates on specific variable such as time spent on social media websites. STROBE tool has
been used for quality reporting and for cross sectional studies ranged from 48 per cent to 93 per
cent. The aim of the review was to identify relationship between online social networking and
depression. For this quantitative research method of analysis has been used. The majority of
studies reviewed in the study demonstrates that complex relationship is between people suffered
from depression and online networking. In total 16% of studies shows the positive correlation
between online social networking and depression. Rest all the studies shows the complex
relationship between depression and online social networking.
quantitative studies addressing the link between social networking and depression.
In the present study
7. Analysis required for data collection
The data analysis is being used in order to analyze the data that is being collected. There
are basically two types of data analysis methods that can be sued in the research. They are
qualitative and quantitative data analysis. In the qualitative data analysis is being used in order to
gain insight knowledge about any research. And the quantitative research is used when the data
that is gathered need to be represented in the form of statistics or mathematics. This research
will help to make decision regarding the data that is collected. In this research the quantitative
data analysis is being used(Skinner and Youngner, 2016). As the various empirical case studies
are being used for this research and also the based on the data that is gathered the mathematics
calculation are being done.
In order to conduct this research the quantitative data analysis was used. The association
in between online social networking and depression was address by the quantitative studies. The
quantitative analysis will be required for the data that is gathered in this research as the
calculation need to be done to find out the results. In this research this analysis will help out to
show in term of mathematics the relationship that is there in between online social networking
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and depression. In the form of calculation the data is being presented in quantitative data
analysis. The reliability of the research findings can be compromised as the responded may
belong to different cultures and they may also be sensitive towards their own culture.
8.Limitation of the proposed study
A number of limitations have being recognized in the research evidence and review
process despite the benefits of this review. The first limitation was that a significant challenge
was faced while working to an agreed conceptualization of online social networking. There have
being increase in the variability of online platform due to diversification of technology.
However, it is being identified by the studies a relationship in between online social networking
and symptoms of depression. In order to address these issues in the future the clear definitions
and classification of online social networking are likely to help. The determination of causation
is an essential distinction with significant ethical implication as this can lead to misregulation
and dissemination of misinformation(Lewis,2015.). It is not possible to determine the causation
due to high prevalence of crossover-sectional studies. In the reporting of the research findings
the third issues was reported. It is being identified that the quality of reporting was low and to the
authors conclusions the less weight can be attributed. Across the studies a primary issue was a
lack if reporting in relation to bias. The limitation of this study was that a very little
consideration was given to the selection bias. In this research the students who may be depressed
or engage in specific online behaviour were more or less likely to be part in the research.
9. Ethical implication for this study
The incorrect casual assumption could lead to mis-regulation and dissemination of
misconfiguration with significant repercussion for public health. With cautions the potential
issues of sampling, validity and generality need to be treated due to cultural heterogeneity.
During this research the ethical consideration regarding the culture of propel need to be given the
respect need to be given as the participants are very sensitive towards their culture. The privacy
of information need to be there in this research. No information about any participant need to be
discussed with other people and also the right to freedom should be given to each one to
represent their view point(Kosinski and Stillwell, 2015).
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10. Describe clinical implications of this study.
Depression was shown to be influenced by a large number of variables and some of the studies
used to analyse the control for confounding variables and also measure the validity of findings.
The further finding reflects that this review possesses some significant impact while taking into
context with the public mental health. It is important to be aware of the potentially problematic
relationship with online social networking and the way it can affect the mental health.
Furthermore, the relationship is identified between the depression and social networking and it
have a complex influence on a public health. There is both positive and negative impact of online
social networking sites on the health of an individual. Some social networking may be beneficial
for mental health. People found that people scoring higher on measuring of depressing were
more likely Facebook application.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kaynak, E., 2015. Marketing Research Needs of Less-Developed Countries: Standardization
Versus Localization. In Proceedings of the 1984 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 160-164). Springer, Cham.
Kosinski, M. and Stillwell, D., 2015. Facebook as a research tool for the social sciences:
Opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations, and practical guidelines. American
Psychologist. 70(6). p.543.
Kutty, H.A. and Rajendran, P., 2017. Review on Numerical and Experimental Research on
Conventional and Unconventional Propeller Blade Design.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches.
Health promotion practice. 16(4). pp.473-475.
Liew, F.Y.F., 2014. Winning Potential Customers through Online Complaint Management: A
Case of Malaysian Hospitality Industry (Doctoral dissertation, INTI International University).
Meredith, M. and Perkoski, E., 2015. Regression Discontinuity Design. Emerging Trends in the
Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource.
Skinner, M.W. and Youngner, S.J., 2016. Risk‐based decision making and ethical considerations
in donor compensation for plasma‐derived medicinal products. Transfusion. 56(11). pp.2889-
2894.
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
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