Week 12: Assignment 12 – Research proposals 

Work in your group and make the first draft of your research proposal.  

Assignment 12 

Group number: 3

Group members:   

Phạm Thị Hồng Ngát 20193568

Lê Thị Như Quỳnh 20193580

Phạm Thanh Sơn 20193592

Research proposals 

1. Title page: Freshmen in SOFL Spending More Time on Facebook are More Likely to

Suffer Anxiety and Depression 

2. Introduction 

In the era of digital technology, Facebook is the most prevalent social networking platform,

which has become a global phenomenon over the past decade (Foregger, 2008). As a result of this rapid

growth in its popularity, numerous social scientists have recently begun to investigate various aspects of

its use. However, there is little research examining the potential health consequences for students

addicted the Facebook (Griffiths, Kuss & Demetrovics, 2014). Therefore, our research will contribute to

more knowledge about the impacts of Facebook addiction among freshmen in university based on

existing studies and add to the insightful and depth work on methods to use Facebook in a healthy way.   

Our study focuses on investigating the mental health expressions, especially anxiety and

depression, of students who have overused Facebook in school and life. From there, reasonable solutions

are proposed to limit the harmful effects of addiction to social networks, especially Facebook, and move

towards the long-term goal of eliminating these negative influences.  

As a result, our research will include both qualitative and quantitative methods. However, the

main method utilized is quantitative quantitative, particularly questionnaire surveys that demand
participants to respond on a common scale to spread information about Facebook addiction and generate

participants to interest in our research. 

3. Literature review and research questions/Information needs 

1. Literature review  

With its rapid spread, social media has had many impacts on students. First, social media

platforms are means of communication that allow users to connect and interact with others. Among

many social media sites, Facebook is the largest social networking platform, with billions of users

worldwide.  

About benefits, this platform helps students enhance academic performance thanks to the ease

of getting academic support, interaction, and discussions between students and teachers. Furthermore,

Facebook provides entertainment that might help lessen the stress associated with students' academic

work. 

However, besides the benefits, Facebook has exceeded human control and raised many issues.

Being prone to depression is one of the severe consequences. Additionally, Facebook overuse may

cause other aftereffects such as school performance declines, abuse of substances, or even suicide.

Moreover, excessive Facebook use can also induce anxiety symptoms, a normal physical state but

possibly develop into a mental health disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or social phobia. 

To limit those adverse effects, each individual needs to be self-aware about the amount of

time they should spend on Facebook. Second, the family also plays a vital role in declining social

network addiction's effects. Finally, it is time for the social media manufacturers and the government

administrations to sit down to take action against the impacts of impacts of the overuse of this

platform.  

2. Research questions 

 What are the reasons and the frequency of first-year students in SOFL using this

platform?  
  How do anxiety and depression caused by Facebook impact the other sides of students’

life?  

 What methods can students, schools, and parents use to avoid anxiety and depression

effectively?  

4. Research methods 

The study uses mixed methods, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The study

uses the qualitative method because it provides a complete description and analysis of the research

subject without limiting the scope of the study and the nature of the participants' responses (Collis &

Hussey, 2003, as cited in Langkos, 2014). To conduct qualitative research, in our research, we

decided to choose participant observation to get a general picture and have detailed information

about their Facebook use frequency during the classes. However, because the qualitative research

method is only suitable for small samples, the results will not be completely accurate (Bell, 2005, as

cited in Langkos, 2014). Therefore, our study will also use the quantitative research method. In this

way, the study not only collects numeric data from a large number of people but also minimizes each

approach's weaknesses, providing more accurate, comprehensive, and detailed data. Our research

aims to investigate the first-year students in SOFL. With the development of technology and a social

network, we have decided to collect information by using sampling methods and sending out online

surveys, polls, questionnaires, and so on. 

Questionnaire surveys will be used to investigate the impacts of excessive Facebook usage

on first year SOFL students in this research. In addition, this method will study whether the students

affected by the destructive effects of social networks, especially Facebook, can overcome those

effects on their own and their attitudes towards the role of the family, social media manufacturers,

and the government administrations. The questionnaire survey is designed in Google Form, which is

straightforward to access and requires less time to answer so that the response rate will be high. Most

of the questions are closed ones, making it easy for the researchers to compare the responses to each

item. The survey is expected to be conducted on about 40 SOFL freshmen. However, before
conducting the main survey, we will run a pilot questionnaire survey on five students to check for

flaws. Before sending the questionnaire survey, we will explain to the respondents that all their

personal information will be kept confidential. The survey will take about 5-10 minutes to complete

the questions. The survey is expected to be conducted at the end of June. 

Besides using questionnaires to collect data, the researchers also used observational methods

to assess Facebook's popularity among freshmen at SOFL. The survey will be conducted in a random

class of freshmen. Throughout the class, we will observe how often they use Facebook.  

5. Schedule of work/ Timeline 

Research phrase  Objectives  Deadline 

1. Background  Choose research topic  25 April 2022 

research   Identify objectives 

 Decide and refine research

questions 

 Develop a theoretical framework 

2. Literature  Look for sources to support the 17 May 2022 

review  research topic and literature review 

 Conduct a review of relevant

literature 

 Make an outline of literature

review 

 Write the first draft literature

review 

 Redraft and submit literature

review 

3. Research  Decide the research approaches  20 June 2022 

 design planning   Identify online and offline

channels for recruiting participants 

 Finalize sampling methods and

data analysis methods 

4. Data  Design questionnaire  30 June 2022 

collection and  Design observation plan 

preparation   Send out the questionnaire and

conduct observation 

5. Data  Statistically analyze survey data  18 July 2022 

analysis   Conduct analysis of observation

results 

 Draft the results 

 Finalize and report data collection 

6. Writing    Complete a full thesis draft  22 July 2022 

 Meet the teacher to discuss

feedback and revisions 

7. Revision   Redraft based on feedback  5 August 2022 

 Get supervisor approval for the

final draft 

 Proofread 

 Print and submit 

6. References 

Boateng, R., & Amankwaa, A. (2016). The impact of social media on student academic life

in higher education. Global Journal of Human-Social Science, 16(4), 1-8. 

Culpepper, M. (2020). Exploring the relationships of social media usage and symptoms of

anxiety and depression in adolescents. 

Davey, G. C. (2016). Social media, loneliness, and anxiety in young people. Psychology

Today, 15.  

Gafni, R., & Deri, M. (2012). Costs and benefits of Facebook for undergraduate students.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, 7(1), 45-61. 

Langkos, S. J. U. O. D. (2014). Chapter 3: Research Methodology: Data collection method

and Research tools. University of Derby. 

Nguyen, T. H., Lin, K. H., Rahman, F. F., Ou, J. P., & Wong, W. K. (2020). Study of

depression, anxiety, and social media addiction among undergraduate students.

Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 23(4). 

O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The impact of social media on children,

adolescents, and families. Pediatrics, 127(4), 800-804. DOI:10.1542/peds.2011-0054 

Richards, D., Caldwell, P. H., & Go, H. (2015). Impact of social media on the health of

children and young people. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(12), 1152-

1157. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.13023 

Scott, H. (2015). Is social media use related to sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety, and

depression in adolescence? 

Selwyn, N. (2012). Social media in higher education. The Europa world of learning. 

Su, Y. S., & Chen, H. R. (2020). Social Facebook with big six approaches for improved

students’ learning performance and behavior: A case study of a project innovation

and implementation course. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1166. 

 Talaue, G. M., AlSaad, A., AlRushaidan, N., AlHugail, A., & AlFahhad, S. (2018). The

impact of social media on academic performance of selected college students.

International Journal of Advanced Information Technology, 8(4/5), 27-35. 

Tandoc Jr, E. C., Ferrucci, P., & Duffy, M. (2015). Facebook use, envy, and depression

among college students: Is Facebooking depressing? Computers in human behavior,

43, 139-146. 

Tandon, A., Dhir, A., Almugren, I., AlNemer, G. N., & Mäntymäki, M. (2021). Fear of

missing out (FoMO) among social media users: A systematic literature review,

synthesis and framework for future research. Internet Research. 

Woods, H. C. and Scott, H. (2016) #Sleepyteens: social media use in adolescence is

associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal

of Adolescence, 51, 41-49. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008 

Zaremohzzabieh, Z., Samah, B. A., Omar, S. Z., Bolong, J., & Kamarudin, N. A. (2014).

Addictive Facebook Use among University Students. Asian Social Science, 10(6),

111–112. DOI: 10.5539/ass.v10n6p107 

        Ryan, T., Chester, A., Reece, J., & Xenos, S. (2014). The uses and abuses of Facebook: A  

review of Facebook addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(3), 133–148.

https://doi.org/10.1556/jba.3.2014.016 

        Foregger, S, (2018). Uses and gratifications of Facebook.com 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281410669_The_uses_and_gratifications_of_F

acebookcom