This examined if social networking use among university students adversely affected psychological well being, and academic performance.

1. The Effects OF Social
Media on Psychological
Well-being
FERNANDO SALAZAR
UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS

2. PROBLEM
 - The use of social media has increased
dramatically (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr
2011). With the emergence of an “online self”
how does social media effect things like
psychological well-being, addictive tendencies,
and academic performance?

3. PREVIOUS LITERATURE
 Observed effects in personal factors like
internet addiction and self esteem, as well as
social factors such as peer relationships and
online image.
 Wilson, Forsier, & White (2010) found
that self esteem positively predicted addictive
social networking use and suggested its use
as social stimulation.
 Stefone (2011) found that amount of time
spent managing profiles significantly
regressed on contingency of self worth.

4. PREVIOUS LITERATURE
 Shaw (2002) found that scores in self esteem
significantly differed after an online chat session,
suggested social communication could be
beneficial.
 Kalpidou, Costin, and Morris (2011) found
negative correlations between number of
Facebook friends and emotional/academic
adjustment, but a positive correlation between
social adjustment.
 Kramer & Winter (2008) found people with
high self efficacy significantly differed in number
of friends, and number of words on profile,
compared to those with low self efficacy.

5. HYPOTHESES
 H1: Self esteem and GPA will negatively
predict Facebook Compulsivity
 H2: Differences between men and women in
FB compulsivity, GPA, and Self Esteem
 H3: Men and women differ in ranked FB
activities

6. PROCEDURE
 Non-probabilistic convenience sample
 40 University of Dallas students
 Administered the Facebook Compulsivity
survey, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem test, and a
ranking of Facebook activities
 Administered in two different classes

7. SURVEY
 I measured Facebook compulsivity on a 5
point Likert scale.
 Questions: “I feel anxious and upset when I
cannot access my Facebook page” and“ I feel
excited and energized when I access my
Facebook page”.
 Measured Self-Esteem on a 5 point Likert
scale
 Questions:“I feel I do not have much to be
proud of” and “I feel that I have a number of
good qualities”

8. SURVEY
 Self reported GPA was measured on a 5 point
interval scale
 Ranked Facebook activities (most
frequent/less frequent)
 Ranked Examples: “Viewing profiles other
than your own” and “Monitoring friends’ activity
from your home page.”

9. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
 Regression was conducted, with Facebook
compulsivity as the dependent variable and
GPA and self-esteem scores as the
independent variables.
 Independent samples t test was conducted to
see if mean self esteem scores differed
between men and women.
 Wilcoxon test on ranked differences in FB
activities between gender

10. RESULTS
ANOVA
Model Sum of
Squares
df F Sig.
Regressio
n
302.746 2 3.203 .032
Residual 1701.613 36Predictors: (Constant), SE, GPA
Dependent Variable: FB
Coefficients
Dependent Variable: FB
GPA was a significant
predictor of Facebook
compulsivity:
F(2,36)=3.203,
p=.032
GPA negatively
predicted Facebook
compulsivity
R2
=.151, β=-.350,
t=-2.275, p=.029
Self-esteem was not
a significant predictor
β=.161, t=1.050,
p=.301
Model Std.
Error
Beta t Sig.
GPA 1.960 -.350 -2.275 .029
SE .318 .161 1.050 .301

11. RESULTS
Model F Sig. t df Sig.(2
tailed)
GPA 16.093 .000 -1.828 31.18 .077
FB .043 .837 -1.540 38 .132
SE .255 .617 -1.082 38 .286
ndependent Samples t-test
Men and Women did not differ on:
GPA, Self Esteem, or Facebook
Compulsivity
Model Gender Mean Std. Dev.
GPA Male 4.1000 .31623
Female 4.3793 .62185
FB Male 19.1000 7.34015
Female 23.0667 6.96263
SE Male 31.9000 3.07137
Female 33.3000 3.67799
Wilcoxon Test
z p
0.23 0.81
Men and Women did not differ on
FB activities ranking

12. DISCUSSION
 Studies like Shaw (2002) seem to point to online
communication as supplemental to the need to
communicate socially, while Kalpidou, Costin &
Morris (2011) and Wilson, Fornasier & White
(2010) seem to oppose to this as they found it
had adverse effects emotionally.
 Larger scope of studies conclude that internet
and social networking use can be detrimental or
beneficial to the user depending on the frequency
and type of interaction the user engages in.

13. LIMITATIONS
 I did not have a large representation of males
in my sample.
 My participants were all students of
psychology

14. DIRECTION FOR FUTURE
RESEARCH
 Could there be a difference in FB compulsivity
according to major?
 T-test on FB compulsivity and major
 Greater diversity of major in participants
 Better representation of males and females
 Kalpidou, Costin & Morris(2011) found
differences in Facebook use between upper
and lower classmen
 Since GPA was the only significant finding,
investigate differences in FB activities ranking
between high/low GPA to see how these
groups differed

15. OVERVIEW
 My study succeeded in finding an association
between compulsive Facebook tendencies
and academic performance, but failed to
reproduce findings in psychological well-being
 Adds to the body of literature that highlights
the association between this new medium and
our personal lives.