Narcissistic Personality, Social Media and Mental Health in Early Adulthood

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between social media, narcissism, and the mental health of young adults. It was hypothesized that there is likely to be a relationship between narcissism, social media usage, and mental health in early adulthood. A correlation research design was used to collect data (online) from (N= 160) university students (male =31; female=129) with the age range of 18-25 years (M=19.58, SD=5.27). The sample was recruited by using a convenient sampling technique from different private sectors universities. Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS-SF), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), and 16 items pair of narcissism were used to collect data. Patient Health Questionnaire introduced by Robert, Janet, and William. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis showed that mental health is positively correlated with social media whereas narcissism is negatively correlated with mental health. Implications show that seminar is very important for awareness about mental health and excessive social media usage. Results show that using hours of social media is significantly predicts mental health. Virtual problems, virtual communication, virtual information social media significantly correlated with mental health. Moreover, there are no gender differences in social media and mental health. So our hypothesis is proved. Our results contradicted the results of previous research which showed a relationship between Narcissism, Social Media, and their impact on mental health.