DigitalCommons@PCOM

Social media use, connectedness, and depression in graduate students

Philadelphia, PA

This study will examine the relationship between social media use, sense of connectedness, and depression among graduate students. Graduate students are often disconnected from their social supports due to their program's demands; additionally, the risk of depression in this population has been established in the literature. The impact of social media on depression has been investigated, and the results are discrepant. The relationship between a sense of connection, the use of social media, and depression in a graduate student population has not yet been explored. Graduate students at The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) and other universities studying psychology, medicine, biomedical science, or physician assistant studies will be included. Participants will be recruited through email and social media platforms. A control group of participants that do not use social media will be included. The following measures will be used: The Social Connectedness Scale-Revised (SCS-R), The Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS2), and The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). An inverse relationship is predicted between connectedness and depression. Participants with high scores on problematic internet use are anticipated to have elevated levels of depression and a low sense of connection compared to participants with low scores on problematic use. The subscales from the GPIUS2 are hypothesized to be predictive of participants' sense of connection.