Instagram Addiction and Depression among College Students

Abstract

This study attempted to find out the relationship between depression and Instagram addiction of students pursuing pre university and degree courses. The sample consisted of 131 students comprising of students aged between 14-23 years. The students completed Test for Instagram addiction (TIA) developed by D’Souza, Samyukta and Bivera (2018) and depression measurement from DASS (Lovibond ; Lovibond, 1995). Test for Instagram addiction measured addiction in 6factors–Lack of control, Disengagement, Escapism, Health and interpersonal troubles, Excessive use and Obsession. Through DASS, the authors measured depression scores. Pearson’s product moment correlations were employed to find out the relationship between factors of Instagram addiction and stress. Stepwise multiple regression was employed to find out the predictors of depression from components of the test of Instagram addiction. As the addiction to Instagram increased depression of the students also increased linearly and significantly. Health and interpersonal troubles and obsession component of Instagram addiction were the major predictors of depression.