Relationship between Facebook Usage and Depression among Malaysian Undergraduates

Beh, Kai Xuan (2023) Relationship between Facebook Usage and Depression among Malaysian Undergraduates. Relationship between Facebook Usage and Depression among Malaysian Undergraduates 1. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Idea sharing, interactions, discussions, there are a lot of reasons for one to be on Facebook as it is a platform that allows users to conveniently engage in these activities to connect with one another. This study was undertaken to examine the relationship between Facebook usage and depression as well as gender differences in Facebook usage among Malaysian undergraduates. A total of 103 (48 males, 55 females) Malaysian undergraduates participated in the study. Two instruments were used in the current study which are the Facebook Intensity Scale (FBI) which measures the user’s engagement in Facebook activities and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CESD) which measures depressive symptoms over the past week. The responses were collected via the Google Forms platform and the results obtained were analysed using the SPSS version 26. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between Facebook usage and depression whereas the independent samples t-test was used to identify gender differences in Facebook usage. The results showed that there was a significant negative relationship between Facebook usage and depression, r(101) = -.28, p < .05 with a small effect size at r2 = 0.08. There was no gender differences in Facebook usage at t(101) = 0.76, p > .05. Future research should recruit a bigger and more diverse sample size to obtain results that are more generalized. Furthermore, a different sampling method besides convenience sampling can be used as the respondents in the current study are from a rather limited circle.