Social media use in severe mental health problems
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the relationship between social media usage and personality, mood, self-esteem and paranoia in individuals experiencing severe mental health problems: An ESM study.
IRAS ID
213727
Contact name
Natalie Berry
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
The relationship between social media use and mental health is highly contentious. Some studies have found that high levels of social media use can lead to the development and exacerbation of symptoms associated with severe mental health problems, whilst others have reported that social media use can be beneficial. Previous research has highlighted that online social comparisons may be a factor that mediates the impact of social media use on an individual's mental health; however, there is no current research that investigates the impact of social media use and online social comparisons in the context of severe mental health problems. Previous studies have found a link between personality characteristics and social media use, but no evidence exists regarding this relationship in clinical populations. Current research in the field is limited due to the tendency to recruit exclusively student samples and the reliance on retrospective measures of social media use, which may susceptible to inaccurate recall.
This study has two main aims. The first aim is to examine the relationship between social media use and mood, self-esteem and paranoia in people with and without severe mental health problems and investigate whether negative social comparisons mediate this relationship. The second aim is to investigate the relationship between personality traits and social media use and behaviours.
Participants will answer questions about social media use and behaviours, mood, paranoia, self-esteem and social comparisons on a paper-based questionnaire and will then be asked to complete assessments measuring these variables 6 times a day over a period of 6 days via a mobile phone. It is hoped that a combination of both retrospective and momentary assessments will improve the reliability and accuracy of recall.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0821
Date of REC Opinion
29 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion