Health Promoting Behaviors and Well Being of Undergraduate Facebook Users

Despite its widespread use, few studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and health. Therefore, this study will analyze Facebook users’ health in two ways: First, by examining the impact of Facebook use on well-being using several domains of mental health. Secondly, it will examine the health promoting and health compromising behaviors of Facebook users to determine whether the intensity of Facebook use predicts the health outcomes found in other forms of media consumption. In both endeavors, the study will follow the examples of previous research by using intensity of media use as a predictor variable, but will also analyze Facebook users by categorizing them on the basis of their type of Facebook usage. Research questions will include whether high Facebook users report lower levels of well-being than low Facebook users on mental health questionnaires. Additionally, this study will also investigate whether high Facebook users report less health promoting behaviors than low Facebook users in areas such as physical activity nutrition, and stress management. This question is important for two reasons: First, to this date, there have been no published studies analyzing the relationship between Facebook use and health promoting behaviors. Second, this analysis will indicate whether the previous findings of a positive relationship between high media consumption and reduced health behaviors (e.g. exercise) can be extended to Facebook. Also, by classifying respondents on why they use Facebook, this study will determine if participants with varying general uses for the site report different levels of well-being or health behaviors