Comparing Personality Traits, Mental Health and Self-Esteem in Users and Non-Users of Social Networks

Various aspects of the psychological component have been affected by the spread of social networks and using these networks by the students.

This study aimed to examine the personality traits, mental health and self-esteem in users and non-users of social networks.

This study conducted as a casual-comparative study among the descriptive designs. In this regard, 372 female high school students studying in the school year 2015 - 2016 were selected from the Instagram and Telegram users of the social networks using multi-stage cluster sampling. Self-made demographic information questionnaire for the participants, Rosenberg questionnaire for evaluating self-esteem index, Hegzako questionnaire for personality traits and Goldberg mental health questionnaire for mental health index were used in the study. Data were analyzed by chi-square, analysis of variance and Bonferroni test.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between users and non-users groups in terms of openness personality component (P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in four components of mental health (P < 0.01). There was also a significant difference for self-esteem index between two groups (P < 0.05).

The findings of this study emphasize the attention to psychological factors in planning of preventive interventions.