A comparative analysis of age, social media and mental health: a curse or a blessing

Abstract

In recent time, plethora of events has shown mental health cases among undergraduates. Some of these include suicide Intention, anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness. The mental health of undergraduates calls for concern which requires an investigative consideration of personal-social factors underpinning variance in mental health status. That is, a comparative analysis of age, social media exposure and mental health: A curse or blessing. This study adopted casual comparative design. A sample of 250 undergraduate students was randomly selected from the University of Ibadan. Two reliable measuring scales (Social media exposure; a = 0.77, Mental health; a = 0.72) were used for collection. T-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) used to analyse the data. The study discovered a significant difference in the mental health of undergraduates based on social media exposure (t(248)= 13.21, p<0.05, partial ɳ1 = 0.08). Participants with high social media exposure (ẋ- 48.3) had lower mental health than those with lower social media exposure (ẋ= 35.2). A significant difference in the mental health of undergraduates based on age; 44.43, p<0.05, partial ɳ2 = 0.35). It was further discovered that participants within the ages of 21 and 24 years (ẋ= 34.4) had higher mental health than those within the ages of 16 and 20 years (ẋ= 29.5). By implication, older undergraduates hove better mental health than the younger ones. Based on findings, it was recommended that university managements should adjust their policy for admission arriving at the exposure of psychological instrument that can determine the intelligent level of the candidates to know their mental age and determine eligibility for admission; in order to ascertain that the candidate is mature enough to handle academic pressure. Counselling psychology unit of the department are expected to champion this mental health screening and remediation within the university system. Also, undergraduate students are enjoined not to be committed to online friends so as to reduce negative feedbacks that come from online relationships.