Federica Violi
University of Illinois at Chicago,USA
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Exp Psychol
Introduction: The increase of
complex mental health issues is
emerging as an immediate concern
around the world. Over 1.1 billion
people worldwide experience
mental illness or a mental health
disability, and one in four people
are affected by various mental
health challenges. Research shows
an increase in major depressive
episodes among adolescents from
8.7% in 2005 to 11.3% in 2014
and from 8.8% to 9.6% among
young adults. This subset of the
population is representative of
many college students, positioning
mental health as a major concern
for universities. At the same time,
society is facing an outstanding
advancement of mobile technology
and social media, and corporations
can take advantage of particular
social marketing strategies in order
to maximize their quantity, quality
and usage among teens and young
adults.
Objective: This review aims
to analyze and summarize the
literature on the impact of social
media on mental health, and
consider the wellbeing measures
of depression, anxiety, stress, and
loneliness.
Methods: A systematic literature
search was performed using
different databases, including:
PubMed/Medline, PMC, Science
Direct/Elsevier, EMBASE, with
inclusion criteria of papers
published after 2015.
Results: From our review, we found
a positive correlation between
social media use and the presence
of mental health challenges, as well
as a positive correlation between
social media networking and
higher levels of depression, anxiety,
and stress among teens. The
literature demonstrates that social
networking behaviors may result in
decreased loneliness.
Conclusion: Our review revealed
inconsistent findings regarding
social media use and the wellbeing
measures of depression, anxiety,
stress and loneliness. The evidence
supports a correlation between
social media use and wellbeing
measures, which validates the
importance of the topic.
Federica Violi is a Research Assistant at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine - Department of Physiology and Biophysics. At present she is working as a research assistant internship at Northwestern University, USA.
E-mail: federicavioli13@gmail.com
