Articles

The Impact of Using Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents

/in /by

Social media usage has exponentially risen over the past decade, with about 4.26 billion social media users in 2021, and it is projected to increase to almost 6 billion by 2027. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, leading to a significant increase in social media usage. However, excessive social media use may lead to negative impacts on mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and social isolation. This research aims to investigate the impact of social media on the mental health of Thai teenagers, identify potential correlations between social media use and mental health outcomes, and develop strategies to mitigate the negative effects of social media on mental health. The questionnaires gather the participants’ general information, the effects of utilizing social media, and the social media events that affect their mental health. With a total of 272 respondents, a survey distributed online to high school students from March 26 to May 6 was randomly chosen. According to our study, the type of school has a significant effect on the student’s mental health. This is due to the fact that different high school students use social media in different ways and experience different effects on their mental health in both positive and negative ways. Statistics also reveal that youths in Thailand are more likely to be addicted to social media and use a variety of social media platforms. This study could serve as a guideline for further studies that specifically focus on the kinds of social media platforms used by adolescents and the kinds of content they consume.

A Questionnaire Based Study to Evaluate the Prevalence of Mental Stress among Undergraduates in an Engineering College in South Gujarat, India

/in /by

Background: In the last few years, there has been an increase in mental stress and consequently mental illness and suicide rates worldwide. Young adults entering college are one of the most vulnerable population due to the major transition from teenage to adulthood. This study evaluates the prevalence of mental stress among the engineering college students.

Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey conducted in an engineering college after obtaining approval from the institutional ethical board and the Dean of the college. The questionnaire was distributed online via Google form links using a non-probability sampling approach. The questionnaire contained two parts – first part contained questions regarding the demographic details of the students and the second part contained ten multiple-choice questions to assess the mental health of students. The questions were inspired from the questionnaires available online from previous studies on similar topics as well as by patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) which is used for screening and diagnosing individuals with anxiety, stress and depression. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze and report results.

Results: A total of 246 completely filled questionnaires were evaluated. The age range of study population was from 17 to 26 years with mean age being 20.85 ± 3.16 years. 61.79% were male. Approximately half of the study population showed some symptoms of mental stress and depression such as little interest in doing things, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, change in eating habits and being fidgety or slow. 48.78% students felt bad about themselves and 19.51% had thoughts of self-harm several days a week. Majority of the students believed that mental health awareness programs will be beneficial for their psychological well-being.

Conclusion: The prevalence of stress among the engineering college students was quite high. Various measures such as awareness, counseling, and mentorship program, as well as reducing their academic burden may help them to cope with stress in a better way.

Teenagers Eating Habits Data Analysis

/in /by

It is common to see newly emerging fast food restaurants in today’s world. Although some have said that balanced diet is now a trend among teenagers which obviously seems irrelevant and contradicts the authors’ observation. In order to find an answer to this question, the authors conducted a survey asking teenagers about their eating habits.

A Correlational Study on the Effect of National Crisis on the Mental Health of Students at the Faculty of Nursing, Tripoli Libya and their Academic Performance

/in /by

The study aimed to determine the relationship of the effects of the national crisis on the mental of the students and their academic performance. Specifically, this study aimed to answer the following questions: 1.)What are the effects of the National crisis on the Mental Health of the students per semester level? 2.)What are the academic performance of the students per semester level? 3.)Is there a significant relationship between the effect of the national crisis on the mental health status of the students at the Faculty of Nursing and their academic performance? The findings that the researcher was able to extract from the study were: 1) The effects of the National crisis on the mental health of the students disclosed the same verbal interpretation of “A good bit of the time” for all semester levels. It is surprising to note that the summary from all semester levels is the same. Indeed it can be said that the mental health of the students although not greatly affected, there’s still some effects that could be seen and that it doesn’t matter which semesters they are currently in. 2) The academic performance of the students disclosed that semester 8 have a verbal interpretation of “Very Good”, semesters 3, 5, 6 and 7 as “Good” and semesters 1, 2 and 4 as “Fair”. The academic performance of the students are not the same for semester 1-8. It is more difficult for the lower years like semester 1, 2 and 4 to adapt as they revealed an overall interpretation of “Fair”. And only students at the last semester was able to get the verbal interpretation of “Very Good”. It is worthwhile to note that as the student progresses, the more likely for them to cope with their academic performance. 3) Statistical evidence shows that an r= 0.26 shows a positive weak relationship among variables. Though it’s not that high, indeed, the mental health of the students can be a predictor to their academic performance.