Evaluating the Effects of Social Media on the Mental Health of DLSU-IS -

Laguna Campus Grade 12 Students

Mico Emison C. Bañadera1, Lara Althea L. Nunag1, Kay Marianne V. Paguntalan1, and
Julliana Marie B. Rut1*
1
De La Salle University Integrated School, Laguna
*corresponding author: [email protected]

Regina M. Tresvalles, Research Adviser

2
De La Salle University, Manila

Abstract: Social media has become an integral part of the twenty-first century. Today, adolescents
are one of the fastest-growing age groups for social media usage. Previous research has shown that
mental health is one of the factors that is affected by the use of social media. Mental health is an
individual’s state of mind which includes their social, psychological, and emotional well-being.
The purpose of this study is to determine if there is no difference in the mental health among
social media users of Senior High School (SHS) students at De La Salle University - Integrated
School (DLSU-IS) Laguna campus between male and female, STEM and non-STEM, below 18
and 18 and above, and social media usage. An online survey was administered containing the
Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38) to attain a numerical score of the mental health of social media
users, as well as a section to determine usage hours on social media platforms–Facebook,
Instagram, and TikTok. Using T-Test, the researchers found no significant difference between
males and females, STEM and non-STEM, and between below 18 and 18 and above social media
users’ mean MHI-38 scores. Furthermore, with the use of ANOVA, the researchers found no
significant difference in the MHI-38 scores of social media users based on their Facebook,
Instagram, and TikTok usage.

Keywords: mental health; social media; MHI-38; students; Philippines

1. INTRODUCTION mental illness or can also be defined as a state of being that

encompasses the biological, psychological, or social factors
In an increasing world of technology, social media of an individual that affect their mental state and capacity to
usage has taken individuals by storm. Social media refers to perform in their environment (Bhugra et al., 2013).
websites and online technologies that allow users to
communicate with one another by allowing them to exchange Social media usage generally has negative and
information, ideas, and interests (Khan et al., 2014). positive implications or effects on mental health. A
Individuals use social media for various purposes, including relationship was found between social media use and mental
entertainment, engagement, and information seeking (Twenge health issues, with depression being the most frequently
& Campbell, 2019). With this, it has changed how individuals evaluated result (Keles et al., 2020). Researchers Eggermont
engage, converse, and share information online, which has and Frison (2015) and Jiang and Ngien (2020) discovered
resulted in changes in news consumption, opinion expression, that Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are associated with
and connection development (Krasnova et al., 2019). Social anxiety, negative body image, and self-harm. Similar
media has grown in popularity, with the number of users researchers, Cambier et al. (2021) and Jaffar et al. (2019),
predicted to be 3 billion by 2021 (Aarø et al., 2020). This also found that the three social media platforms are
indicates that individuals are immersed in using social media associated with harassment, social comparison, and abuse. On
which causes them to feel its impact, specifically on their the other hand, researchers Lonborg and Rae (2015) and
mental health. Mental health can be referred to as the lack of Olinski and Szamrowski (2021), found that Facebook,
Instagram, and TikTok improve connection, help raise are no differences in mental health among social media users
awareness, and spread body positivity. It is also discovered in of Senior High School (SHS) students at De La Salle
the study of Baghbanzadeh et al. (2022) that Facebook, University - Integrated School (DLSU-IS) Laguna campus
Instagram, and TikTok aid in boosting self-esteem and between male and female, STEM and non-STEM, below 18
promoting mental health. and 18 and above, and social media usage. With this, the
researchers aim to: (1) compare the MHI-38 scores of social
A recent study found that individuals who use social media users by sex, strand, and age, and (2) compare the
media for more than three hours a day could be more likely to MHI-38 scores of students between the time they spend on
experience mental health issues, especially internalizing the mentioned social media platforms. The study addresses
issues (Riehm et al., 2019). In a descriptive study, it is also the potential impacts of social media usage on the mental
found that an individual’s mental health, including despair health of grade 12 students between variables. The results of
and anxiety, is being impacted by increased use of social the study could aid future researchers who plan to explore
media and too much time spent on social networking sites and further understand the relationship between social media
(Rajesh & Priya, 2020). However, other studies claim that usage and mental health. Since the study looks into specific
there is little to no effect on the time spent on social media demographic variables, it provides insight into how each
and mental health issues. When looked at the individual level, factor could be influenced by the possible differences in the
research found that greater social media use was not linked to relationship between mental health and social media usage.
higher mental health problems across development (Coyne et Additionally, the study's findings validate and add to previous
al., 2020). Another study also found that increases in research and what is already known and understood in this
depression are slightly correlated with increased social media field.
use (Brunborg & Andreas, 2019).
2. METHODOLOGY
The study will be utilizing the Mental Health
Inventory (MHI-38), developed by Veit and Ware in 1983. It The study focuses on grade 12 students aged 17 to
is a tool designed to assess mental health conditions and 19 from the De La Salle University Laguna campus. With
includes six domains: Anxiety, Depression, Loss of 294 as the population size, the sample size of 170 was
Behavioral/Emotional Control, General Positive Affect, determined using Slovin's formula with a 95% confidence
Emotional Ties, and Life Satisfaction (Al Mutair et al., 2018). level and a 0.05 margin of error. Simple Random sampling
The MHI-38 scale, which contains 38 items, can be used to was employed to select participants, allowing for
calculate a single high-level summary score of a person's generalizations about this specific demographic. The study
mental well-being, with higher scores indicating greater employed a quantitative research design through a survey
psychological well-being and less psychological distress. The questionnaire to gather data. The questionnaire consisted of
study of Zainab et al. (2022) interpreted the MHI-38 scores three sections: demographics, social media usage, and the
into ranges through variables. For anxiety, the low range is Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38) scale. Data was collected
9-24, moderate is 25-39, and high is 40-54. For depression, using Google Forms, and the responses of the participants
the low range is 4-10, the moderate is 11-17, and the high were collected and arranged in an Excel spreadsheet for
range is 4-10. The low range for loss of control is 9-23, the analysis. Data on variables such as sex, strand, age, and social
moderate is 24-38, and the high is 39-53. The low range for media usage were gathered while the MHI-38 questionnaire
emotional ties is 2-5, the moderate is 5-8, and the high is generates a numerical score to aid in measuring mental
8-12. For life satisfaction, the low range is 1-2, moderate is health. The researchers utilized T-Test, and ANOVA to
2-4, and high is 4-6. The questionnaire has been used in evaluate the data. T-Test compared the means of MHI-38
previous studies and has demonstrated good internal scores for different groups, such as male and female, STEM
consistency and acceptable reliability measures (Al Mutair et and non-STEM strands, and below 18 and 18 and above
al., 2021). This research on the mental health of grade 12 social media users while ANOVA differentiated the MHI-38
students benefits from utilizing the MHI-38 as a research scores based on varying amounts of time spent on social
technique due to its focus on mental health. media. These statistical methods helped the researchers
determine the differences among social media users between
The purpose of this study is to determine if there male and female, STEM and non-STEM, below 18 and 18
and above, and social media usage. The study's limitations MHI-38 score for all 171 respondents is 140 which is also the
include limited generalizability, self-reported data bias, point estimate of the true mean with a standard deviation of
cross-sectional design limitations, and potentially different 32.9, and 208 being the maximum and 64 being the minimum
aspects of the relationship between social media usage and MHI-38 score.
mental health outcomes. The sample size of 170 participants
may not adequately represent the larger population, reducing Table 1
validity. The study could potentially have biases due to T-test for the difference of two mean MHI-38 scores by SEX
several factors. The study used simple random sampling to
choose participants. However, there might be a lack of
Female Male
interest among students to participate in the study, which
could create bias as voluntary responses may be influenced
by certain experiences and opinions. Additionally, response Mean 134.76 144.7333333
bias may happen as participants could give socially
acceptable answers or inaccurate information regarding their Variance 980.292973 1140.107865
use of social media or their state of mental health which
could be another factor that could affect the reliability of the Hypothesized 0
study. Mean Difference

df 161
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
t Stat -1.965844853
After the researchers conducted statistical analysis
and compared the MHI-38 scores of various categories, it was
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.051036473
discovered that there were no differences among social media
users between male and female, STEM and non-STEM,
t Critical two-tail 1.974808092
below 18 and 18 and above, and social media usage. The
respondents were categorized according to demographics.
These demographics include sex, strand, and age. Regarding The MHI-38 scores of male and female social
sex, there were 90 (52.6%) male and 75 (43.9%) female media users among the respondents were compared using a
respondents while 6 (3.50%) respondents preferred not to T-test. After conducting the statistical test, the null
state their sex. In terms of academic strand, STEM hypothesis that there is no significant difference between
respondents accounted for 128 (74.9%), while non-STEM the two groups’ mean scores was not rejected (t(161) =
respondents accounted for 43 (25.1%). Moreover, among the 1.9748, p > .05). This implies that there is no significant
171 respondents, the most common age was 18, with a total difference between the MHI-38 scores of female and male
of 112 (65.5%) out of 171 respondents while 49 (28.7%) social media users.
respondents were aged 17, and 10 (5.8%) of them were aged
19. In summary, there were 49 (28.7%) respondents below Table 2
the age of 18 and 122 (71.3%) respondents aged 18 and T-test for the difference of two mean MHI-38 scores by
above. In regards to social media usage, 113 (66.1%) STRAND
respondents were found to be using Facebook for less than an
hour. Additionally, it was discovered that 85 (49.7%)
respondents use Instagram mostly for 1 to less than 2 hours STEM non-STEM
while 72 (42.1%) respondents reportedly use TikTok for less
than an hour. Furthermore, the highest possible MHI-38 score Mean 139.0859375 143.0233
an individual could attain from the questionnaire is 226 while
the lowest score is 38, wherein higher scores on the Mental Variance 1101.68547 1044.071
Health Inventory indicate greater psychological well-being
and less psychological distress, as stated in the MHI-38 Hypothesized 0
questionnaire scoring guide. The overall calculated average
 difference between the MHI-38 scores of below 18 and 18
Mean Difference
and above social media users.
df 74
Table 4
One-way ANOVA of the MHI-38 scores between
t Stat -0.686569015 respondents’ time spent on FACEBOOK
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.494500175
Source of Between Within Total
t Critical two-tail 1.992543495 Variation Groups Groups

Sum of 5019.263613 179244.7481 184264

The MHI-38 scores of STEM and non-STEM
Squares
social media users among the respondents were compared
using a T-test. After conducting the statistical test, the null
df 3 167 170
hypothesis that there is no significant difference between
the two groups’ mean scores was not rejected (t(74) =
Mean 1673.088 1073.322
1.9925, p > .05). This implies that there is no significant
Square
difference between the MHI-38 scores of STEM and
non-STEM social media users.
F 1.558794
Table 3
T-test for the difference of two mean MHI-38 scores by AGE
P-value 0.201336

Below 18 18 and above F crit 2.658723

Mean 140.5625 139.418033

One-way ANOVA was used to compare the
MHI-38 scores between respondents' time spent on
Variance 1414.8470 945.9643
Facebook. These groups fall under the headings 1 to less than
2 hours, 2 to less than 3 hours, 3 to less than 4 hours, and
Hypothesized 0
greater than 4 hours. After conducting the statistical test, the
Mean Difference
results showed that the null hypothesis, that there is no
difference in the mean MHI-38 scores for all the groups, was
df 73 not rejected (F(3,167) = 1.5588, p > .05). This suggests that
the MHI-38 score of the social media users were not
t Stat 0.187568 impacted by their Facebook usage.
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.851736 Table 5
One-way ANOVA of the MHI-38 scores between respondents’
t Critical two-tail 1.665996 time spent on INSTAGRAM

The MHI-38 scores of below 18 and 18 and above Source of Between Within Total
social media users among the respondents were compared Variation Groups Groups
using a T-test. After conducting the statistical test, the null
hypothesis that there is no significant difference between
Sum of 2472.672 161791.3 184264
the two groups’ mean scores was not rejected (t(73) =
Squares
1.6660, p > .05). This implies that there is no significant
 One-way ANOVA was used to compare the
df 3 167 170
MHI-38 scores between respondents' time spent on TikTok.
These groups fall under the headings 1 to less than 2 hours, 2
Mean 824.2239 1088.571
to less than 3 hours, 3 to less than 4 hours, and greater than 4
Square
hours. After conducting the statistical test, the results showed
that the null hypothesis, that there is no difference in the
F 0.757161
mean MHI-38 scores for all the groups, was not rejected (F
(3, 167) = 1.5950, p > .05). This suggests that the MHI-38
score of the social media users were not impacted by their
P-value 0.519664
TikTok usage.
F crit 2.658723
4. CONCLUSIONS
One-way ANOVA was used to compare the The results revealed that there is no difference in
MHI-38 scores between respondents' time spent on mental health among social media users of Senior High
Instagram. These groups fall under the headings 1 to less than School (SHS) students at De La Salle University - Integrated
2 hours, 2 to less than 3 hours, 3 to less than 4 hours, and School (DLSU-IS) Laguna campus between male and female,
greater than 4 hours. After conducting the statistical test, the STEM and non-STEM, below 18 and 18 and above, and
results showed that the null hypothesis, that there is no social media usage.
difference in the mean MHI-38 scores for all the groups, was
not rejected (F (3, 167) = 0.7572, p > .05). This suggests that The researchers discovered that there were no
the MHI-38 score of the social media users were not significant differences in mental health between male and
impacted by their Instagram usage. female social media users. It was also found that the same
result was observed for STEM and non-STEM social media
Table 6 users, as well as for social media users below the age of 18
One-way ANOVA of the MHI-38 scores between and those aged 18 and above. Lastly, the researchers
respondents’ time spent on TikTok explored the relationship between social media usage and
mental health based on the time a social media user spends
on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The results indicated
Source of Between Within Total
no significant differences in mental health scores among
Variation Groups Groups
different time divisions for each of the platforms.
Sum of 5132.637 179131.4 184264 Future research could explore factors such as
Squares self-esteem, body image, loneliness, social support, social
anxiety, and online harassment through qualitative research
df 3 167 170 which could aid in better understanding the relationship
between social media use and mental health. Additionally,
Mean 1710.879 1072.643 researchers could look into using a different sampling
Square method and consider a larger sample size, and a wider range
of demographics, platforms, and age groups to gain more
F 1.595013 accurate, valid, and reliable results on the possible
influences that social media usage could have on mental
health across different variables.
P-value 0.192521

F crit 2.658723
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The researchers would like to express their sincere

gratitude to Ms. Regina M. Tresvalles for her invaluable Bhugra, D., Till, A., & Sartorius, N. (2013). What is
guidance throughout the study. Ms. Tresvalles not only mental health? International Journal of
provided expert assistance in selecting and implementing the Social Psychiatry, 59(1), 3–4.
appropriate statistical tests used in the paper but her insightful https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764012463315
feedback and expertise greatly enhanced the overall quality of
the research. Furthermore, the researchers would like to Brunborg, G. S., & Andreas, J. (2019). Increase in time
extend their appreciation to Mr. Cedrick Torbeles for his spent on social media is associated with
exceptional guidance, unwavering support, and valuable modest increase in depression, conduct
feedback throughout the project. Mr. Torbeles' input played a problems, and episodic heavy drinking.
pivotal role in refining the paper and fostering growth within Journal of Adolescence, 74, 201–209.
the research group. His expertise and dedication to the project https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.0
significantly contributed to its overall improvement. 6.013

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