The relationship between social anxiety and Facebook use : a quantitative study amongst University students

Abstract

The popularity of Facebook and other online social-networking sites, particularly amongst young people (Antheunis, Schouten, & Krahmer, 2014) has led to a growing interest in investigating the relationship between its use and mental health issues, in particular social anxiety (Strickland, 2014). Research has shown inconsistent relationships between social anxiety and Facebook use, possibly because of Facebook’s high heterogeneity in degree of social interactivity and its many features (Dobrean & Pasarelu, 2016). The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between social anxiety (measured using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale – LSAS (Liebowitz, 1987) and some features of Facebook use, such as (time spent, daily logins, number of friends, reasons why they use Facebook, and who they communicate with). A total of 196 University students participated in study (73% females and 27% males). The results showed moderate anxiety levels amongst the sample as a whole, with significantly higher scores amongst females and those aged between 20-23 years. The study found that although those who use Facebook more have slightly higher anxiety levels, the relationship is weak and the results were not statistically significant. The results support recent literature in that there are potentially other factors of Facebook use that could be stronger correlates of social anxiety, such as specific features on Facebook as well as patterns and motivators of use that are more directly related to communication and social interactions.