Bullying on Facebook ups depression risk in young adults
Washington, Sept 10: Young adults who have experienced negative experiences on Facebook - such as bullying, meanness or unwanted contacts - may be at significantly higher risk of depression, a new study has found.
"I think it's important that people take interactions on social media seriously and don't think of it as somehow less impactful because it's a virtual experience as opposed to an in-person experience," said Samantha Rosenthal, from the Brown University in the US.
"It's a different forum that has real emotional consequences," Rosenthal said.
Since the young adult participants were also enrolled as adolescents in the New England Family Study, the researchers knew how participants were faring in 2002, before the advent of Facebook.
The study, therefore, suggests that their later negative experiences on Facebook likely led to their increased levels of depressive symptoms, rather than just reflecting them, said Stephen Buka, professor at Brown.
"This as close as you can get to answering the question: Do adverse experiences (on Facebook) cause depression?" Buka said.
"We
knew
how
the
participants
were
doing
as
kids
before
they
had
any
Facebook
use,
then
we
saw
what
happened
on
Facebook,
and
then
we
saw
how
they
were
faring
as
young
adults,"
he
said.
"It
permits
us
to
answer
the
chicken-and-egg
problem:
Which
comes
first
-
adverse
experiences
on
Facebook
or
depression,
low
self-esteem
and
the
like?"
Buka
added.
About 82 per cent of the 264 participants reported having at least one negative Facebook experience (NFE) since they started using the service, and 55 per cent had one in the year before they were surveyed in 2013 or 2014.
Among
the
participants,
63
per
cent
said
they
had
four
or
more
NFEs
during
their
young
lifetimes.
About
24
per
cent
reported
moderate-to-severe
levels
of
depressive
symptoms.
To
determine
the
risk
of
depressive
symptoms
independently
attributable
to
NFEs,
the
researchers
controlled
for
depression
as
adolescents,
parental
mental
health,
sex,
race
or
ethnicity,
reported
social
support,
daily
Facebook
use,
average
monthly
income,
educational
attainment
and
employment.
After
the
adjustments,
they
found
that
among
people
who
experienced
any
NFEs,
the
overall
risk
of
depressive
symptoms
was
about
3.2
times
greater
than
among
those
who
had
not.
Bullying or meanness was associated with a 3.5 times elevated risk, while unwanted contact had a milder association of about 2.5 times.
Significantly elevated risks were only linked to unwanted contacts or misunderstandings if there were four or more, but even just one to three instances of bullying or meanness was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms.
Similarly, the more severe a person perceived incidents to be, the more likely they were to be showing signs of depression, Rosenthal said.
The research was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
PTI