LOL Lab Members’ Successful Thesis Defences
Congratulations to LOL lab members Sherry Han and Sophia Marchetti on successfully defending their master's theses, supervised by Dr. Malkin!
Sherry’s research examined problematic social media use (PSMU) and its links to mental health among university students. Her work explored not only whether excessive social media engagement is associated with anxiety and depression, but also why people turn to these platforms in the first place. She found that using social media to escape stress or negative emotions was the strongest predictor of problematic use, while seeking attention or validation was also tied to more withdrawal-like patterns. Importantly, however, it was the compulsive features of PSMU, such as needing to use social media more over time or feeling uneasy without it, that were most strongly associated with psychological distress. These findings suggest that both the reasons behind social media use and the patterns of use itself matter, pointing toward interventions that focus on coping strategies, stress management, and meaningful offline engagement rather than simply reducing screen time. Sherry’s research was supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Sophia’s research explored dating violence within post-secondary populations, with a particular focus on how Greek Life (i.e., fraternities and sororities) as a social context may shape risk and related attitudes. This study is one of a larger series of dating violence studies in the LOL lab. Drawing on data from Canadian post-secondary students, Sophia examined how attitudes toward dating violence, perspective taking, and behaviours such as sexual deception are interconnected. Her findings suggest that students who hold more accepting attitudes toward dating violence tend to show lower levels of perspective taking, and that engaging in sexual deception is associated with these attitudes. While Greek Life affiliates did not differ from their peers in self-reported attitudes towards dating violence or self-reported perspective taking, they performed worse on a behavioural measure of perspective taking and reported significantly higher rates of both experiencing and perpetrating dating violence. This thesis project highlights the complexity of factors contributing to dating violence on campus and points to the importance of targeted interventions and adapted policy efforts to improve student safety. Sophia’s research was supported by the Canadian Graduate Scholarship - Master’s through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (CGS-M, SSHRC).
Congratulations to you both!
