ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MENTAL HEALTH AMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS

Abstract

Background: Social media is increasingly part of the lives of university students, offering them a chance to communicate, entertain and learn. But overuse or problematic use might be linked with psychological distress, such as stress, anxiety and low self-esteem. Students in the undergraduate program may be at greater risk due to their academic demands and their clinical duties.

Objective: To identify the usage pattern of social media and evaluate the perception of undergraduate nursing students regarding the effect on mental health such as stress, anxiety and self-esteem that social media has.

Methods: The study was of descriptive cross sectional type with undergraduate nursing students of University of Lahore, Pakistan. The participants were recruited using a convenience sampling technique. The sample size was expected to be 278 students and the detailed frequency tables showed 277 valid answers. The data were collected by using a structured questionnaire which included items related to the demographics, social media usage patterns, self-reported mental health indicators and perceived impacts of social media. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, with frequencies and percentages reported.

Results: The majority of the participants were between 20-25 years of age (93.9%). The detailed demographic tables revealed that the male population was 70.0% and the BSN program had 83.0% female students. As regards social media, 40.1% reported using social media 3-5 times a day, 17.0% were using social media for more than four hours a day. The main purpose of social media usage was entertainment (47.3%), socialization (26.4%) and academic purposes (25.3%). Moderate self-esteem was reported by 51.6%, sometimes 31.8% and always 26.4% of the participants reported anxiety. Overall, 55.6% reported that social media impacted their mental health. Increased stress, decreased self-esteem and increased anxiety were the most commonly reported effect selected together. In addition, 47.3% indicated that they would decrease their social media consumption to have a positive effect on mental health.

Conclusion: Undergraduate nursing students used social media and the main uses were entertainment and social interaction. The psychological effects were reported to be diverse such as stress, anxiety and changes in self-esteem. The results showed that using social media and being mindful about the mental health of nursing students is important. Additional analytical study is needed to determine statistical associations between exposure to social media and mental health outcomes.