Social Media Use and Its Association with Mental Health and Internet Addiction among Portuguese Higher Education Students during COVID-19 Confinement

Ana Paula Oliveira (), Joana Rita Nobre, Henrique Luis, Luis Soares Luis, Lara Guedes Pinho, Núria Albacar-Riobóo and Carlos Sequeira
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Ana Paula Oliveira: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Joana Rita Nobre: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Henrique Luis: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Luis Soares Luis: Center for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechcare), Polytechnic of Leiria, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal
Lara Guedes Pinho: Nursing School, University of Évora, 7000-811 Évora, Portugal
Núria Albacar-Riobóo: Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain
Carlos Sequeira: Nursing School of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: The use of social media was one of the most common way to keep in touch with friends and family during confinement. For higher education students, the fact that their universities were closed was a major change in their lives. The aim of this study is to relate the prevalence and type of social media with Internet addiction and mental health of university students in a district of Portugal during COVID-19 confinement. Mental health was studied by applying the reduced version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) and to measure the Internet use and dependence, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was used. The study (cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational) used an online questionnaire, conducted on Google ® Forms and the link was sent to 4450 students, in the months of April to June 2020, during the confinement. A total of 329 valid questionnaires were obtained. We can conclude that regarding mental health, students in the 18–24 age group, single or divorced and who are not in a relationship, and with worse academic results, show worse levels of mental health. It is noteworthy that the students with the same characteristics also have the highest levels of addiction to internet.

Keywords: social media; internet addiction; mental health; higher education students; confinement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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