Adolescent health brief“Facebook Depression?” Social Networking Site Use and Depression in Older Adolescents
Section snippets
Methods
This study took place between February and December 2011 at a large public Midwest university. Approval was obtained from the relevant institutional review board.
Results
Of the 373 students enrolled in the targeted class, 273 participants (73%) completed the survey. All participants who completed the survey were invited to enroll in the ESM study; of the 193 students (71%) who participated, three (1.6%) did not respond to any ESM surveys and were excluded from all analyses as nonresponders. Sample characteristics are presented in Table 1.
Among the 190 participants who provided both PHQ and ESM data, responses were received for 93% (95% CI: 92–95%) of the ESM
Conclusions
Using a real-time assessment of Internet use and a validated clinical screening instrument for depression, we found no association between SNS use and depression in a sample of older adolescents. Our findings are similar to those from studies of other communication applications, such as e-mail and chat, which also found no association with depression [5], [6].
The current study is strengthened by both the rigor of the data collection design and the established validity of the measurement
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Greg Downey, Ph.D., Sandon Jurowski, and Rosalind Koff for their assistance with data collection for this project. Funding was provided by the University of Wisconsin Graduate School.
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