Psychiatric disorders, social isolation and use of Social Networks in a sample of university students: a pilot study.
Journal Title: Biomedicine & Prevention - Year 2016, Vol 2016, Issue 1
Abstract
Introduction There is some evidence of a strong association between social isolation and depressive and anxious symptoms in college students. On the contrary, there are controversial data on the link between the use of social networks (SNs) and mental health. Aim of this study is to evaluate the relation between social isolation, use of SNs and psychopathological measures in a sample of university students. Design and Methods Standardized instruments were administered to assess mental health and social isolation: Beck Depression Inventory; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, version Y; Beck Anxiety Inventory; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and the Lubben Scale for social isolation assessment. Number of daily accesses, number of Facebook contacts, number of friends among Facebook contacts and the total number of SNs have been reported. Results 305 college students have been interviewed anonymously. Frequent use of SNs was strongly associated with social isolation, but no association was found with mental disorders. On the other hand, social isolation was associated with mental disorders. Discussion From an overall analysis of our results, we found a significant and independent association between the use of SNs and social isolation and between social isolation and mental disorders. However, further research is needed to explore this correlation in a wider sample.
Authors and Affiliations
Laura Morciano, Giulia Lisi, Michele Ribolsi, Gianpiero Gallo, Cinzia Niolu, Alberto De Stefano, Carla Parisi, Francesca Lucaroni, Alessia Pesaresi, Sandro Mancinelli, Leonardo Palombi
Keywords
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- EP ID EP334697
- DOI 10.19252/000000039
- Views 134
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