Is facebook use associated with happiness or stress?

Abstract

The purpose of the current research was to investigate the relationships between Facebook use and negative emotional states with a focus on the characteristics of active Facebook users. We created two questionnaires for the present study (435 respondents): Facebook Attitudes and Reasons for Using Facebook, based on the instruments of Ellison et al. (2007) and Sen-Chi et al. (2012). In addition we measured depression, stress, anxiety, and happiness. We registered that participants up to 22 years of age, those with secondary education, who do not work, and do not live with a partner, tend to spend more time on Facebook and have more friends there. We also established significant differences in Salience of Facebook use, Maintaining Existing Connections, and Emotional Support through Facebook, according to gender, age, education, work, and marital status. Weak but positive correlations were found between salient Facebook use and preference for sharing content, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety, and stress, on the other. The present research sheds light on the relationships between Facebook use and correlates of subjective well-being and mental health.