Preferred Name
Niki
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
Spring 2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Educational Specialist (EdS)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Debbie C. Sturm
A. Renee Staton
Abstract
Anxiety and depression are consistent issues experienced amongst college student populations in the United States (American College Health Association, 2013). However, there is limited research on what contributes to the cause of increased student reports of anxiety and depression. While there are many contributing factors to a student’s experience of anxiety and depression, little to no research has looked at the effect of social media and nature on college student anxiety and depression. The researcher has provided a literature review on the benefits and barriers of nature and technology use on college student’s health. The researcher conducted a multivariate correlational study to examine the interaction between college students’ mental health and their time spent using social media and how connected they are to nature. The hypothesis of this research is that there would be a positive correlation between mental health issues and time spent using technology and a negative correlation with mental health issues and time spent in nature. To understand this correlation would provide insight about indicators for anxiety and depression in college students. These indicators can be useful for diagnostic or predictive purpose. The purpose of this study serves to explore the relationship between college student mental health, specifically anxiety and depression, and time spent using technology and time spent in nature.
Recommended Citation
Crump, Nicole, "Digital natives: The nature of technology on college student mental health" (2015). Educational Specialist, 2009-2019. 4.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/edspec201019/4
