Brito, B. E., Fagan D., Fogel J., Kumar, K., Muzaffar, N., Verma, R. (2018). The Association of Adolescent Facebook Behaviours with Symptoms of Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, and Depression.
Introduction
In a Brito, B. E., Fagan D., Fogel J., Kumar, K., Muzaffar, N., Verma, R. (2018) study, socialmedia is one factor that influences adolescents and Facebook is one of them. 13-17-year oldscommonly use social media and this study shows how that affects them. Benefits from using social media include early learning, exposure to new ideas and knowledge, and increased opportunities for social contact and support. However, the risks of using social media is negative health effectson sleep, attention, anxiety, and depression. Increased adolescent social anxiety is associated withincreased Facebook use. Some studies show no association, a study from Jelenchick, Eickhoff, and Moreno (2012), Davila et al (2012), and Blachnio et al (2015); while others show increased depressive symptoms associated with increased Facebook use and time spent on social media.They study the association of symptoms of social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression and their association with Facebook. They hypothesize that symptoms of social anxiety, generalizedanxiety, and depression would each be positively associated with both Facebook use and repetitiveFacebook use.
Method
102 adolescents were surveyed at a suburban safety-net hospital in East Meadow, New York.Participants included 38 early adolescents (ages between 12 and 14), 59 middle adolescents (agesbetween 15 and 17), and five late adolescents (ages between 18 and 20). The surveys were obtainedfrom pediatric settings such as emergency rooms, inpatient, outpatient and psychiatry settings suchas outpatient.
Variables
Variables including demographics, anxiety, depression, distress, and outcome variables come intoplay. Demographic variables were age (in years), sex (male/female), race/ethnicity (Caucasian,South Asian, African American, and Hispanic), and whether participants were born in the UnitedStates (no/yes). Another demographic variable was a Facebook account and was it active or not.Social anxiety was measured by The Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescentsand it contained 24 items: 12 items assess social interaction/relationship situations and 12 itemsassess performance situations. Generalized anxiety was measured with the 10 items from the anxious arousal sub scale of the Mini Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (Mini-MASQ). Depressive symptoms were measured with the eight items from the anhedonic depression subscaleof the Mini-MASQ. Like depressive symptoms, distress was also measured with the eight itemsfrom the general distress subscale of the Mini-MASQ. Additionally, there were two outcomevariables. The Facebook Behavior scale measured common Facebook behaviors that are donewhen people log onto Facebook. The Facebook Behavior scale measured 16 Facebook Behaviorsthat were rated on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = always being done whenlogging onto Facebook.
Statistical Analysis
Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to describe the continuous variables with a normal distribution. The skewed distribution was described using median andinterquartile range. Frequency and percentage were used to describe the categorical variables. IBMSPSS Statistics Version 24 (IBM, 2016) was used for all analyses.
Results
The increased total number of Facebook friends, increased time spent per day on Facebook, andincreased anxious arousal symptoms were each crucially associated with increased Facebookbehavior and increased repetitive Facebook behavior. Moreover, social anxiety symptoms,depressive symptoms, and general distress were each not associated with Facebook behavior andrepetitive Facebook behavior. In conclusion, increased adolescent generalized anxiety symptoms were associated with increased Facebook behavior and repetitive Facebook behavior.
