Latent profile analysis of depressive symptoms and its associations with problematic social media use and demographic characteristics among Chinese college students.

This study gave the Depression Scale and the Problematic Social Media Use Scale to 3,540 college students in order to examine the categorical distribution of depression levels among them as well as the predictive roles of problematic social media use (PSMU) and demographic characteristics. According to the findings, college students' depression levels fall into three latent categories: low, moderate, and high. Higher PSMU levels were linked to higher depression levels. Additionally, demographic factors including male, rural background, and grade also exerted significant influences on depression levels.