The Relationship Between Social Media Engagement and Psychological Well-Being in College Students at The University of New Hampshire.

Emily D’Antonio BS & Kevin Pietro MS, RD, LD,

Department of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems, University of New Hampshire

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

• The primary research aim of this study investigates how college student’s specific frequency and intentionality in social media use is related to their self-reported psychological well-being.

• A convenience sample of 177 students of varying majors (69.5% upperclassmen) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) participated in a brief online survey powered by Qualtrics, comprised of questions aiming to quantify social media behavior and psychological well-being.

• Participants indicated spending the most amount of time using Snapchat (2.77 avg. hr./day) and Instagram (2.26 avg. hr./day).

• 42.9% expressed editing some to all of their content before posting, and 73.5% indicated checking social media right before going to bed.

• A Spearman's rank-order correlation did not identify any significant relationships between the number of hours spent using Instagram or Snapchat and any items of the BIT.

• There was a weak, negative correlation between checking social media both when waking up (r=-0.263, p<0.001) and before going to bed (r=-0.247, p=0.001), and the BIT item “my life has a clear sense of purpose”.

• Based on the results of the present study, social media intentionality had a greater impact on psychological well-being than frequency. Participants indicated agreement with certain behavior on social media such as using right before bed, using upon waking up, and heavy distractibility which suggest addictive tendencies.

Reference:SuR,TayL,DienerE.TheDevelopmentandValidationoftheComprehensiveInventoryofThriving(CIT)andtheBriefInventoryofThriving(BIT).ApplPsychol-HealthWellBeing.2014;6(3):251-279.doi:10.1111/aphw.12027