A study on the Differences in Mental Health, Physical Symptoms and SNS Addiction Tendency of Male and Female College Students

Abstract

This study was to identify differences in mental health, physical symptoms, and SNS addiction tendency according to the gender of college students and factors related to SNS addiction tendency. The research tools used were the Korean version of the General Mental Health Scale, physical symptom, and SNS addiction tendency presented by Maekyungeconomy. To measure the difference of SNS-related characteristics, mental health, physical symptom, and SNS addiction tendency according to gender, t-test was performed using the SPSS 22.0 program.  The factors related to the tendency of SNS addiction were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. Of the total 297 college students, 44.4% were male students and 55.6% were female students. There was a significant difference in SNS-related characteristics between male and female students in smartphone usage time (t=-2.73, p=.007), average daily SNS usage time (t=-4.24, p<.001), and the number of daily SNS postings (t=-2.08, p=.038). The mental health of male and female students differed significantly in anxiety (t=-2.16, p=.031), depression (t=-3.98, p<.001), social maladjustment (t=-3.90, p<.001) and frequency of going out (t=2.10, p=.036) and the mental health level of female students was lower than that of male students (t=-3.49, p=.001). Physical symptoms between male and female students showed significant differences in all areas and female students experienced more physical symptoms than male students. (t=-4.27, p<.001) Female students were significantly more likely to be addicted to SNS than male students (t=-6.35, p<.001). The factors related to SNS addiction tendency were the number of posts uploaded per day (OR=1.061, p=.007), physical symptoms (OR=1.045, p=.002), and anxiety in mental health areas (OR=1.296, p=.009). It needs a special program focusing on female students to prevent SNS addiction tendency and strategies to reduce physical symptoms and anxiety among college students with high SNS addiction tendencies.