1. • Kramer, Guillory & Hancock (2014) monitored the ac<vity of
over 689, 000 Facebook users, which found that users’
emo<onal states were largely affected by the status updates of
their Facebook friends. This study led to a mass discussion
about the degree to which social networks affect our moods.
• Out of 10.4 million Facebook users in Malaysia, 3.5 million of
them are young adults aged 18-24 years, which is the typical
university-going age among Malaysians (Subramaniam, 2014).
They make up the majority of Facebook users in Malaysia.
• Facebook usage: how frequently individuals use Facebook, how
connected they are with the site in terms of emo<ons and how
Facebook-related ac<vi<es are assimilated into their daily
rou<nes (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007).
• Self-esteem: overall feelings, aYtudes and evalua<ons towards
oneself and how posi<vely or nega<vely we view ourselves as
people (Rosenberg, 1965).
• Depressive Symptoms: changes in nine domains, which are
mood, focus, self-cri<cism, thoughts about death or suicide,
interest, energy level, sleep disrup<ons, changes in appe<te or
weight, and psychomotor symptoms (Rush et al., 2003).
• Aim: To inves<gate if Facebook use, depressive symptoms, &
self-esteem are related among Malaysian university students.
• Hypotheses:
(i) There is a significant rela<onship between FB use and
depressive symptoms among Malaysian university students.
(ii) There is a significant rela<onship between FB use and self-
esteem among Malaysian university students.
Facebook Usage, Depressive Symptoms and Self-Esteem Among Malaysian
University Students
Tara Thiagarajan (Ms. Chee Kwan Foong)
Sunway University
Study Design
• Non-experimental, cross-sec<onal study using a series of
ques<onnaires.
• The convenience sampling method was used in this study.
Par7cipants & Demographics
• The majority of students were from Peninsular Malaysia while 4
par<cipants were from East Malaysia.
Table 1
Demographics
Measurements Used
• Demographic Informa<on Survey (developed for this study)
• Facebook Intensity Scale (FBI) (Ellison et al., 2007)
• Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (Self-Report)
(QIDS-SR 16) (Rush et al., 2003)
• Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965)
Armstrong, S., & Oomen-Early, J. (2009). Social connectedness, self-esteem, and
depression symptomatology among collegiate athletes versus nonathletes.
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Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for
interpersonal afachments as a fundamental human mo<va<on.
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Canbeyli, R. (2010). Sensorimotor modula<on of mood and depression: An
integra<ve review. Behavioural Brain Research, 207(2), 249-264. doi:
10.1016/j.bbr.2009.11.002
Deba<n, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A. K., & Hughes, B. N. (2009). Facebook and
online privacy: AYtudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communica8on, 15(1), 83-108. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-
6101.2009.01494.x
Ellison, N. E., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook
“friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network
sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communica<on, 12, 1143-1168. doi:
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x
Gindrat, A. D., Chy<ris, M., Balerna, M., Rouiller, E. M., & Ghosh, A. (2015).
Usedependent cor<cal processing from finger<ps in touchscreen phone
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Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of
massive-scale emo<onal contagion through social networks. Proceedings of
the Na<onal Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(24),
8788-8790. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1320040111!
McKenna, K. Y. A., Green, A. S., & Gleason, M. E. J. (2002). Rela<onship forma<on
on the Internet: What’s the big afrac<on? Journal of Social Issues, 58, 9-31.
doi: doi:10.1111/1540-4560.00246
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Rush, A. J., Trivedi, M. H., Ibrahim, H. M., Carmody, T. J., Arnow, B., Klein, D. K.,
Markowitz, J. C., Ninan, P. T., Kornstein, S., Manber, R., Thase, M. E., Kocsis,
J. H., & Keller, M. B. (2003). The 16-item quick inventory of depressive
symptomatology (QIDS) clinician ra<ng (QIDS-C), and self-report (QIDS-SR):
A psychometric evalua<on in pa<ents with chronic major depression.
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Subramaniam, B. (2014, Januray 5). On the social media circuit. The Star Online.
Retrieved from hfp://www.thestar.com.my/News/Educa<on/2014/01/05/
Onthe-social-media-circuit/
• The Pearson’s product-moment correla<on coefficient was used to
inves<gate the rela<onship between Facebook usage, depressive
symptoms, and self-esteem.
Facebook usage appears to have a rela<onship with the Sleep
Disturbance and Psychomotor Agita8on/Retarda8on domains of
depressive symptoms. However, the nature of this rela<onship needs
to be analysed in a more in-depth manner. It was postulated that
social comparison and connectedness help buffer against depressive
symptoms as the SNS also may be used among university students
as a therapeu<c outlet. However, more research should be done to
inves<gate how Facebook usage is linked to the different aspects of
depressive symptoms, perhaps star<ng this inves<ga<on by looking
more closely at whether social comparison, social connectedness,
ritualised media usage, and the use of Facebook as a therapeu<c
medium to vent, as possible factors that mediate this link. Self-esteem
and Facebook usage had no significant rela<onship in this study,
indica<ng possible flaws in the tool used to measure it, calling for a
more in-depth analysis of self-esteem and the nature of its
rela<onship with Facebook usage.
Table 2
Correla8ons between Facebook Usage, Depressive Symptoms, and
Self-Esteem among Malaysian University Students
Table 3
Correla8ons between Facebook usage and the 9 domains of
depressive symptoms
Addi7onal Analyses
• A small nega<ve rela<onship was found between Facebook usage
and the Sleep Disturbance domain of the QIDS, r = −.13, n = 260,
p < .05 (two-tailed).
• A small nega<ve rela<onship was found between Facebook usage
and Decrease/Increase in Appe<te/Weight domain of the QIDS,
r = .09, n = 260, p = .16.
• A small nega<ve rela<onship was found between Facebook usage
and the Psychomotor Agita<on/Retarda<on domain of the QIDS,
r = −.13, n = 260, p < .05 (two-tailed).
• Item 5 of the FBI (“I feel I am part of the Facebook community”) was
nega<vely related to total scores on the QIDS, r = −.16, n = 260,
p < .05, indica<ng that the more par<cipants felt they were part of
the Facebook community, the less depressive symptoms they
reported.
Facebook Usage and Depressive Symptoms
• Social Connectedness: Feeling connected and affiliated with others
can help buffer against feelings of depression, which was indicated by
Baumeister and Leary (1995) as well as Armstrong and Oomen-Early
(2002).
• Facebook as a Therapeu6c Outlet: Individuals appear to prefer
disclosing their problems online rather than face-to-face interac<ons
(McKenna, Green, & Gleason, 2002). Facebook may be seen as a
secondary outlet for expressing themselves, which is safe for them to
disclose those emo<ons without being directly judged by others.
Emo<ons displayed in Facebook users’ statuses could be influenced
by emo<ons displayed by their friends’ status updates, some
Facebook users may feel encouraged by their friends’ status updates
displaying nega<ve emo<ons, thus reinforcing them to share their
own nega<ve feelings with their friends online without fear of being
judged.
• Social Comparison: In the present study, social comparison could
work as a media<ng factor between Facebook usage and certain
depressive symptoms such as sleep, appe<te/weight, and
psychomotor agita<on/retarda<on. Social comparison could leave
par<cipants of the present study to feel befer about their lives and
therefore, exhibit less depressive symptoms when using Facebook to
compare themselves with their peers.
• Facebook usage & psychomotor agita6on/retarda6on: The more
incorporated using the SNS is in the par<cipants’ daily rou<nes, or
the more emo<onally connected par<cipants are to the SNS, the less
psychomotor-related symptoms of depression are exhibited. Using
Facebook via computers or mobile devices involves a lot of
movement of the fingers (i.e. clicking, typing, scrolling and tapping on
a touch screen). These movements s<mulate the brain’s
sensorimotor cortex (Gindrat, Chy<ris, Balerna, Rouiller, & Ghosh,
2015). Sensorimotor s<mula<on has been linked to have an effect on
depressive symptoms like psychomotor-related symptoms (Canbeyli,
2010). However, it is unclear whether using a smartphone or
specifically using Facebook is linked to a reduc<on in psychomotor
depressive symptoms, calling for more research into this mafer.
Facebook Usage and Self-Esteem
• Ritualised Media Use (Deba6n, Lovejoy, Horn, & Hughes, 2009):
Using Facebook has become so integrated into our daily lives that it
could affect our psychological states such as our self-esteem to the
same degree that our normal, everyday lives outside the Internet
would.
Limita7ons
• This study was cross-sec<onal- data could only be obtained at one
point in <me-a longitudinal study might bring more insight into how
it can affect emo<onal states over <me, the more we use it. The way
we use FB is constantly evolving, with new updates con<nuously
changing the way we use the site. Therefore, a longitudinal study
would take these factors into considera<on.
• The FBI Scale doesn’t inquire respondents’ main reasons for using
Facebook. Adding this element could help befer gauge how
connected people are with Facebook such as their mo<va<ons for
using the site and how using it could fulfill specific needs.
Method
Procedure
• Par<cipants were approached either online (via Facebook) or
in-person (Sunway University Campus), explained about the
study and were asked whether they would like to
par<cipate.
• Par<cipants filled in the Demographic Informa<on Survey
followed by the FBI, QIDS-SR 16, and the Rosenberg Self-
Esteem Scale (Online: via Google Sheets, In-person: paper
and pencil).
• Sample may not be representa<ve of the en<re popula<on of
Malaysian university students. This sample was limited to
mostly the Klang Valley, from private universi<es (mostly from
Sunway University).
Introduction
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References