ANALYSIS OF MENTAL DISORDERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION OF ADOLESCENT NURSING STUDENTS ON THE BASIS OF GENDER

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine mental disorders and social media addiction in adolescentnursing students in terms of gender.Methods: The population of this descriptive research was comprised of students of Nursing Departmentof the Faculty of Health Sciences of a public university in Turkey. Research data were collected via‘Personal Information Form’ which addressed socio-demographic characteristics of participants, ‘SocialMedia Addiction Scale (SMA Scale)’ and ‘Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)’. Frequencies, means, standarddeviations, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test were utilized in the analysis of data obtainedthrough the research.Results: Mean age of students taking part in the research is 19.69±1.15. It was found that 51.3% ofstudents participating in the research were females and smoking was more common among femalestudents. It was ascertained that females had higher means of scores obtained from overall BSI and itsanxiety, depression, and negative self-evaluation sub-scales. In light of the finding that the mean of scoresobtained by female students from the overall SMA Scale was 77.00 (41-143), it was identified that femalestudents had social media addiction. It was found that there was a statistically significant positiverelationship between the mean of scores of overall SMA Scale & its sub-scales and overall BSI & its subscales.Conclusions: Initiatives and activities that can improve students ' mental health and reduce their socialmedia addictions should be planned.