Abstract

Despite the amount of people currently using technology and the overwhelming amount of data already presented on the topic of how technology affects a person's mental health, there seems to be little information on how the different types of activities on the different types of screens affect university student's mental states. This research study examined the amount of time that a University of Central Florida (UCF) student spends on what was defined as educational activities in front of screens and what was defined as recreational. The definitions of what is educational and what is recreational screen time came from a previously published study (Salzano et al., 2021). These dimensions of screen time have never been investigated like this before. This data was then compared to the student's current level of depression (among other factors) to see if more time per day, in a particular screen time group, affects a university student's mental state. This information is extremely important to investigate as understanding if certain activities affect a university student's mental health could lead us to lower the increasing level of depression in this country if those screen activities are limited (Duffy et al., 2019). In the end 449 currently enrolled UCF student responses were recorded and it was determined that the data did not support the hypothesis. According to this study the amount of screen time, whether it be educational or recreational, did not influence any aspect of a university student's mental health whether it be depression, stress, or mindfulness as there was no difference between any of the scores at the different screen time values. If this study was to be conducted again, perhaps more participants could be included, or a different scale of screen time could be used to obtain different results.

Thesis Completion

2023

Semester

Fall

Thesis Chair/Advisor

Zhang, Tingting

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Release Date

12-15-2023

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