Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media Use in College Students

This project, prepared for Grand Canyon University's PSY825 course, investigates the connection between social media use and mental health outcomes, specifically anxiety and depression, among high school and college students. The research proposal outlines ten strategic points, exploring the broad topic of social media's impact, particularly in the urban Boston area, with a sample size of ten students and one principal per school, using a mixed methodology. The literature review covers the background of the problem, theoretical foundations (including Facebook depression theory), and a review of existing literature, emphasizing the need for limited social media use and parental/school involvement. The project aims to determine the association between social media use and the onset of depression and anxiety amid high school and college students, addressing gaps in previous research by using a quantitative approach, formulating research questions about social media's impact on student psychology, self-esteem, and sleep outcomes, and proposing a quantitative methodology involving questionnaires like the PSQI, HADS, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The research also examines the role of social media in sleep disturbances and the importance of creating awareness about the adverse effects of social media on students.

Running Head: STRATEGIC POINTS
Anxiety and Depression connected to use of Social Media in the 21st Century High-School and
College Student Population
Strategic Points for the Prospectus, Proposal, and Dissertation
Revised
Gabriela Rosu PSY825
Grand Canyon University
November 18, 2018

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Topic
The topic of this research proposal is “Anxiety and Depression connected to use of Social
Media in the 21st Century High-School and College Student Population.”
Ten Strategic Points Comments
or
Feedback
Broad Topic
Area
Social media is considered to be a driven factor that caused
depression and anxiety among the students. In this regard, the
purpose of this proposal is to identify the intensity of the social
media on causing trouble in Students’ psychology. In addition to
this, the discussion also incorporates an understanding regarding
the role of the principals of the schools and colleges.
Furthermore, the urban Boston region is identified as the sample
location with a sample size of 10 students and 1 principal from
each school. As a matter of fact, mix methodology is used in for
collecting data from the samples. Therefore, it can be concluded
that the proposal is accurate and follows the ten strategic points
correctly. In other words the proposal aims to determine the
association between the use of social media and the onset of
depression and anxiety amid high school and college students.

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Lit Review
a. Background of the problem
i. Statistical reports suggest that the number of
users who have access to the social network were
2.46 billion in 2017, and their proportion is
expected to increase to 2.77 billion by the year
2019.
ii. One of the major issues of the present times that
is playing a vital role in reshaping the world is the
accessibility of the common public to the internet.
iii. Social media is one of the most utilized facets of
the World Wide Web and exists in different
forms such as, forums, blogs, business networks,
social gaming, chat applications, and social
networks.
iv. Due to the rapid use of social media it is become
a common psychological disorder among the
young and adults and hampering their natural
sleep that leads to mental disorder and blockage
(Woods & Scott, 2016).
v. According to Andreassen et al., (2016) poor sleep
quality can cause anxiety and depression among

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the young and adults. Moreover, the vulnerability
of continuous surfing on social media creates low
self-esteem and self-centredness.
vi. In the studies, Guntuku et al., (2017) showed that
depression became a common phenomenon
among the students because continuous surfing
on the social media leads them to develop a poor
self-esteem or over confidence. As a result of
that when they failed to accomplish something
then it affected them emphatically.
b. Theoretical foundation
i. It can be argued that the perceived
burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness are
the primary theory behind depression that leads to
suicide tendency among the victims (Blease,
2015).
ii. Research evidences have also suggested that
social media use is responsible for a range of
problems such as, low self-esteem, poor patterns
and quality of sleep, depression, and anxiety

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(Woods & Scott, 2016).
iii. On the other hand, Ma et al., (2016) advocated
that after the advent of the social media it became
a chronic disease among the youths to get
suffered with the social media. In this context,
Kleiman, Liu and Riskind (2014) propounded the
theory of ‘Facebook depression’.
iv. Besides this, Joormann and Vanderlind (2014)
puts more focus on the cognitive and socio-
cultural foundations that are responsible for the
indiscriminate erection of depression and anxiety.
c. Review literature
i. Limited use of the social media is necessary for
the young generation in order to reduce
depression and anxiety. However it has to be
noted that in the modern day concept, using the
social media in a limited or educed amount is not
possible. This is mainly because of the fact that in
the 21st century. Students often study by using the
social media platforms. Majority of the schools
and colleges have digitalized form of education.

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They have to make sure that the students are not
getting addicted to the same.
ii. Families must also make sure that they are being
very free and frank with their children and
helping them to understand the good and the bad
aspects of the social and online media. They have
to make sure that the high school students and the
college students must be sharing about their
feelings of being active on social media.
iii. The schools and college authorities must put
more emphasis on the reason behind depression
and anxiety among the students. The school
authorities must not use any strict or unfriendly
means to deal with these problems. They must be
very polite and supportive towards the students.
They have to make sure that their approach is for
the benefit of their students. They must also try to
conduct some counseling sessions that will help
the students in understanding the proper methods
of using their social sites or the online media
sites. These counseling sessions or the

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intervention programs must take place with the
complete consent of the students. The school and
the college authorities have to make sure that they
are involving the family members of their
students within these intervention processes.
iv. It requires government initiatives in order to deal
with the growing negative impact of the
depression and anxiety among the students. Some
regulations and enactment will be beneficial to
prevent indiscriminate use of social media.
v. Implementation of effective psychological
evaluation process should be installed in the
educational institutions because of setting up
awareness regarding the adverse impact of social
media.
d. Summary
i. Gap: It is important to procure a framework
regarding the evaluation of the mental stability
and the reaction of the authority. The earlier
researches were mainly done talking about the
negative impacts of social media usages that

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causes depressions and anxiety. However there
are also some applications through which the high
school students can also get rid of their
depressions and their anxiety. There are several
tensions that may arise in their lives and they
might not be able to share them properly with
their parents or anyone around them. In such
cases it is obvious that they can try to find some
outlets through the social media. However the
earlier researches have not really dealt with this
part. Thus, we will be dealing with this in our
future researches.
ii. It has also been seen that, previously many of the
researches were mainly done by using the
qualitative method. Thus, there is a problem that
those researches may not have taken the opinion
or the feedbacks of the students in this current
scenario. It is for this reason that we have thought
of using the qualitative method in this and also in
the rest of the researches that will be coming up

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in future.
iii. Prior Studies: The previous researches and
literatures are addressed the reason behind the
anxiety and depression among the youths and the
adults but failed to address any remedies to
prevent the indiscriminate use of social media.
iv. Quantitative study: The research puts emphasis
on the quantitative study by collecting data and
information from the students and college and
school authorities. Previous researches have been
done by using the qualitative method. As a result
of this, we have taken the quantitative form in
this research.
v. Significance: The purpose of this proposal is not
only identifying the intensity of the social media
on students’ psychology but also figure out the
possible remedies in order to prevent
psychological disorder among the students due to
use of social media.
Problem
Statement
The relationship between social media and psychology of the
students is unknown and subjected to further research and based

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on it the report will discuss whether there is any adverse impact
of social media on the students.
Research
Questions
a. R1: What are the impacts of social media on the
psychology of the students?
b. R2: What are the impacts of social media on the self-
esteem of high school and college students?
c. R3: How does the use of social media affect sleep
outcomes among the high school and college students?
Sample a. Location: Boston
b. General Population: Students using social media
c. Target population: All students from high schools and
colleges in urban Boston
d. Sample: 10 students, each selected across ten high
schools and colleges from urban Boston Number of
observation for each school: From each school and
college, 10 students will be selected and categorized into
different groups.
Describe
Phenomena
(qualitative) or
Define
Variables/
Hypotheses
a. H1A: There is a significant relationship between the
growing anxiety and depression of the students and the

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(quantitative) role of social media in it.
b. H1A0: Social media does not play any role in the onset
of anxiety and depression among students.
c. H2A: Social media lowers the self-esteem of the students
d. H2A0: Self-esteem among students is not influenced by
their usage of social mediaH3A: Night-time use of social
media results in poor sleep quality among the students.
However there can also be the same effect that the
students can suffer during the day time. Depression is
something that can affect the individuals at any point of
the day and not only during the night time.
e. H3A0: There is no relationship between the use of social
media and sleep outcomes
Methodology &
Design
The research will be a quantitative study where the statistical
analysis of the responses provided by the student will help in
establishing the correlation between social media use and the
primary outcomes. The students will be provided online version
of three different diagnosis scales and/or questionnaires, each for
one research objective that will contain closed ended questions,
and help in coding their responses in numerical and statistical

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forms.
Purpose
Statement
The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of social
media on the student behaviour such as, self-esteem, anxiety,
depression, and sleep patterns.
Data Collection
Approach
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety
and Depression Scale (HADS), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale will be used for data collection.
Data Analysis
Approach
a. Following administration of the questionnaires to the
students, their responses shall be collected.
b. Mean and standard deviation will be calculation for each
variable namely, sleep quality, anxiety, depression and
self-esteem.
c. Correlation coefficient will determine the association
between the variables