EVALUATION OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIAADDICTION, SELFESTEEM AND DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENTS

Use of social media is growing widely to the point of developing addiction in youngsters. Adolescents are more vulnerable to develop any kind of psychiatric illness due to the critical growth period. The age of exposure to electronic gadgets is decreasing day by day. Lying in the grey zone between dependence and independence for taking wise decisions for themselves, there is a high possibility of developing unhealthy behavior. This paper highlights social media addiction and its relationship with self-esteem and depression in adolescents. After taking written informed consent and Institute Ethical Committee permission data was collected from school students studying in Secondary School in Surendranagar. Sociodemographic data sheet, Social Media Addiction Scale – Student Form, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Beck Depression Inventory were used to collect data, which was followed by analysis using SPSS version 16. Amongst 60 students social media addiction was probably present in 20.5% and it had strong negative association with self-esteem of students (χ2=4.364, γ=-0.449, P</=0.05) and had positive association with depression (χ2=12.656, γ=-0.692,P</=0.05). Spearman Correlation value of -0.495 between social media addiction and self-esteem is significant at p<0.001. Amongst students, odds of having social media addiction is 4.5 times higher in those who have below average Self-esteem as compared to those who have above average self-esteem. Hence, it can be concluded that addressing self-esteem issues in adolescence is of prime importance to prevent further issues like development of social media addiction and subsequent depression.