Feeling bad on Facebook: depression disclosures by college students on a social networking site

Depression is common and frequently undiagnosed among college students. Social networking sites are popular among college students and can include displayed depression references. The purpose of this study was to evaluate college students' Facebook disclosures that met DSM criteria for a depression symptom or a major depressive episode (MDE).

We selected public Facebook profiles from sophomore and junior undergraduates and evaluated personally written text: "status updates." We applied DSM criteria to 1-year status updates from each profile to determine prevalence of displayed depression symptoms and MDE criteria. Negative binomial regression analysis was used to model the association between depression disclosures and demographics or Facebook use characteristics.