Bradshaw, Charles A. (2024) It's Love, Actually: An Exploration of Dating App Motivations, Usage and Depression in Australian Emerging Adults. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
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Bradshaw - It's Love, Actually An Exploration of Dating App Motivations, Usage and Depression in Australian Emerging Adults.pdf Download (471kB) |
Abstract
In light of the rise of online dating apps and their use amongst emerging adults, concerns have been raised regarding their potential to impact mental health. The limited research on dating apps, especially in an Australian context, considered alongside social media research suggest that motivations for using dating apps and frequency of use may play a role in explaining any mental health outcomes. To address gaps identified in previous research, this study aimed to examine the motivations of Australian emerging adults for accessing dating apps, and how these motivations and frequency of use might explain symptoms of depression. Participants were a sample of first year psychology students at Griffith University with experience of online dating (N = 187, 66.3% female, 29.4% male, and 4.2% other), aged 17 – 29 years (M = 21.4, SD = 3.18). An exploratory factor analysis identified three motivation factors (Love, Social Connection and Validation/Sex) for accessing dating apps, with Love explaining the greatest variance. Tests of mean differences showed that current dating app users reported significantly higher scores of depressive symptoms than both previous and recent users. Mediation analyses revealed that user motivations were not associated with depression, nor did frequency of use factor in this relationship. Love, however, did show a positive association with frequency of use. This study highlights that any negative impacts of dating app use on depression are likely both small and temporary, and offers potential avenues for future research.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Dr Scott, Riley |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jan 2026 05:59 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2026 05:59 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | dating apps, dating app motivation, depression, emerging adults, online dating |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1701 Psychology > 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520304 Health psychology |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/53080 |
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