Real-life closeness of social media contacts and depressive symptoms among university students.

Objective: To examine the association between degree of real-life closeness of social media (SM) contacts and depressive symptoms.

Participants: Students ages 18-30 (N = 1124) were recruited in August 2016.

Methods: Participants completed an online survey assessing SM use and depression. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess associations between real-life closeness of SM contacts and depressive symptoms.

Results: After controlling for covariates, each 10% increase in the proportion of SM friends with whom participants had no face-to-face relationship was associated with a 9% increase in odds of depressive symptoms (AOR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.05-1.13). However, each 10% increase in the proportion of SM friends with whom participants had a close face-to-face relationship was associated with a 7% decrease in depressive symptoms (AOR = 0.93; 95% CI = 0.89-0.97).

Conclusions: Having no in-person relationship with SM contacts is associated with increased depressive symptoms; however, having close in-person relationships with SM contacts is associated with decreased depressive symptoms.