81. The impact of social network public opinion dissemination on the mental health of college students
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background With the rapid development of mobile Internet technology, social network has become the core field for college students to obtain information, exchange and interact, and its public opinion dissemination has the characteristics of timeliness, fission, emotion and so on. Social networks, as the core information channel for students, have prominent psychological impacts due to the immediacy and emotional characteristics of public opinion dissemination. The existing research lacks quantitative research on the impact of public opinion dissemination characteristics on students' psychology. To clarify the correlation strength and action path between the key characteristics of social network public opinion dissemination and the psychological health indicators of college students, a mixed research method combining questionnaire survey and public opinion data crawling was adopted. Typical social network platforms were selected to extract public opinion feature data, and the psychological health status of college students was synchronously surveyed, aiming to provide precise targeted basis for college psychological health intervention. Methods To accurately explore the impact of social network public opinion dissemination on the mental health of college students, the study was conducted using a combination of standardized scales and multi time point tracking assessments. The study used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess the severity of depression, Cronbach's α = 0.87; Using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) to assess anxiety levels, Cronbach's α = 0.85; The Self Esteem Scale (SES) was used to assess the level of self-identity, Cronbach's α = 0.82. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and AMOS during the baseline period (T0), peak propagation period (T1), and settling period (T2). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted using SPSS 26.0, and a structural equation model was constructed using AMOS 24.0 to test the direct impact of public opinion dissemination indicators on mental health and the mediating effect of loneliness. The significance level was set at α = 0.05. Results The PHQ-9 score in T1 phase was 7.82 ± 3.15, significantly higher than that in T0 and T2 (p<.01); The proportion of negative public opinion is strongly positively correlated with PHQ-9 (r = 0.68, p<.001) and strongly negatively correlated with self-identity (r = -0.62, p<.001). The structural equation model shows that the proportion of negative public opinion has a total impact coefficient of 0.57 on depression; The overall impact coefficient of information overload on anxiety is 0.47 (p<.001). Female students have a higher sensitivity to negative public opinion than male students. For every 10% increase in negative proportion, female students' PHQ-9 scores increase by 1.23 points, while male students' PHQ-9 scores increase by 0.87 points (p<.05). Discussion Quantitative research has confirmed that the proportion of negative public opinion on social networks is a core risk factor affecting the mental health of college students, and its impact is stronger among female students and graduating grade students. This provides a precise direction for universities to carry out mental health interventions. Due to the varying impacts of different public opinion themes, further research can expand and refine the classification of public opinion themes.
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin
Author: Xinrui Du
Institution: Huanggang Normal University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7128818749