Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents in Ethiope East Local Government of Delta State

ABSTRACT The study examined the the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents in Ethiope East Local Government of Delta State. The study was guided by five research questions and five hypotheses. Correlational research design was adopted, and a population of 6186 and twenty (24) public schools in Ethiope L.G.A of Delta State was used. Simple random sampling technique via balloting was used to sample 200 students. A questionnaire titled impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents”. The questionnaire contains items of facebook, whatsapp, twitter, youtube and mental health was used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha was used for estimating the internal consistency of the instrument. A general reliability coefficient of 0.89 was obtained for the entire scales. The data obtained was analyzed with Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of Determination for the research questions and Multiple Regression for the hypotheses. The findings showed among others that a significant positive impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents in Ethiope East Local Government of Delta State. From the findings and conclusion, it was recommended among others that Parents should monitor their children friends/wards to act as role models and set a good example of how to utilize social media in positive sense, the social media applications should be restricted to certain age limits.