Social Media Use as a Predictor of Suicide Ideation among University Undergraduate in Anambra State.

Abstract

The increasing case of Suicide among young people is on the increase, with the World Health Organisation reporting that over 800,000 cases of suicide occur annually. Suicide is often preceded by suicidal ideation, thoughts on how to end one’s life. While many studies have focused on the associations that exist among mood disorders, substance use and suicidal ideation, this study will focus on the 
prevalence of social media use and its possible relationship with suicide ideation. The Correlation Research Design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised all the 335 final year Political Science students in Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, both in Anambra State. Data were collected using a researcher-madeExtent of Social Media use Questionnaire (ESMQ), and an adapted version of Williams (1987) Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire, SIQ. Cronbach Alpha technique was applied to ascertain the internal consistency of the instruments which yielded values of 0.81,0.76, and 0.89 for the 
three clusters of the ESMQ, and 0.84 for the SIQ. Data collected were analysed using SPSS Version 26. The research questions were answered with the Pearson Product Moment Correlation, while the hypotheses were tested using Simple Linear Regression. Findings indicated that frequency of social media use, validation seeking behaviour and social comparison had weak correlation with suicide ideation among undergraduate students in Anambra State. Also, it was found that frequency of social media use as need for validation did not significantly predict suicide ideation among university undergraduates. However, it was found that social comparison did predict suicide ideation. It was recommended that digital wellness programs should be implemented within educational institutions to raise awareness about healthy social media use, among others.