Effect of Social Media Usage on Students’ Mental Health at Higher Education Level

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of social media on the mental health of University students using a positivist approach. It was a non-experimental, quantitative research design using a correlational research design. The population comprised students from the University of Okara, and a representative sample of 300 students was selected through a two-stage random sampling technique. The data were collected using two research instruments and then analyzed using inferential statistics such as the Pearson correlation coefficient, independent sample t-test and linear regression. The study shows that there is a strong, positive and significant correlation between student’s mental health and their use of social media. The findings show that the importance of the educational stakeholder must be given more attention to the potential effects of social media on student’s mental health.