45
Post-graduation wellbeing and the impact of social media :
A qualitative exploration using students from Keele University and Staffordshire University .
Scarlett Hunt ( MRes Social Sciences , Keele University )
Abstract
Graduating from university can be stressful for many students : uncertainty and stress surrounding career choice , financial status , and living arrangements are just some of the factors that can potentially pose mental challenges for graduates . Whilst the topic has been addressed quantitatively by academics , there is little research that looks into this topic in-depth . Therefore , this article aims to qualitatively explore how graduating from university can negatively impact students ’ mental wellbeing , whilst also considering how social media usage can contribute towards this . One-hour semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 9 graduates ( M = 3 , F = 6 ) aged 21 – 25 from two university institutions within North Staffordshire , United Kingdom . Participants were asked open-ended questions relating to their university experience , plans for graduation , how their university supported them after graduation , and their social media usage . Participants were recruited via a purposive sampling technique . Although this was a small-scale study , all participants shared similar experiences and thus , data saturation was reached . To generalise the findings to the wider UK student population , more research would be