The Relationship between Internet Activities and Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of College Freshmen

An Internet survey of college freshmen at a mid-Atlantic mid-sized university was conducted during the spring of 2002 to determine the impact of Internet activities on social support and well-being. Results obtained from the survey allow examination of the impact of amount of time performing different types of Internet activities on depressive symptoms, as measured by the Iowa version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) via a semi-elasticity ordinary least squares regression model. Results indicate that increased e-mail and chat room/instant messaging (IM) hours are associated with decreased depressive symptoms, while increased Internet hours for shopping, playing games, or research is associated with increased depressive symptoms. The implications of these results for institutions of higher education, and Internet and health researchers are discussed.