Relationship Between Social Support, Social Media Usage, and Psychological Well- Being among Undergraduates in Different Institutions of Punjab

Abstract

Background: Social media is like a magnanimous tree and us being leaves connected through twigs of imagination Today 4.33 billion people are connected to the internet, and almost all do by using their mobiles. In Pakistan, there were 71 million broadband subscribers and 69 million 3G/4G users in June 2019. Aims & Objectives: The current study aimed to find the relationship between social support, social media usage, and psychological well-being among undergraduates aged 18-25 years. Methods: A sample of eight hundred and forty-three male and female students was included in this research. A stratified random sampling technique was applied in the research. The sample was taken from departments of various institutions in Lahore. The duration of the study was 6 months. The study was a cross-sectional study and the data were collected using questionnaires based on Ryff's scale of psychological well-being, Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale, and Inventory of Social Supportive Behavior (ISSB) scale. Results: The data were analyzed on SPSS 25 and the results indicated that social support received from close ties was positively correlated with psychological well-being [r(841) = .523, n = 843, p< .001]. At the same time, social support received from online sources had no significant impact on psychological well-being while social media usage was negatively correlated with psychological well-being [r(841) = -.215, n = 843, p< .001]. Using the regression analysis technique, the three variables in combination explained 34.6% of the variance in psychological well-being [R2 = 0.346, F(6, 836) = 75.37, p< 0.01]. Age and gender had no significant effect. Conclusion: These findings implicate that healthy interpersonal relationships between close ties and undergraduate students should be encouraged and controlled usage of social networking sites should be practiced.