A university student won a ticket to the final round of a college-level scientific research contest with his survey on the Facebook habits of local youths.

Nguyen Phi Long, from Ho Chi Minh City Open University, spent six months collecting feedback from 250 students from four city-based high schools and a university for his study. The ages of the respondents range from 15 to 25.

Long has been shortlisted as a finalist of the 2013 Eureka scientific research contest.

His study starts with the question “Do you know of Facebook?” to which 100 percent of the respondents said yes.

Meanwhile, 92.4 percent said they are members of the world’s largest social network.

The survey paid particularly close focus on users’ behaviors and feelings about the Facebook “like” button.

28.1 percent of the respondents said they will “like” status updates that are “good quotes from friends,” while 20 percent said they “like” statuses with words of wisdom or funny photos.

More than 40 percent said they keep “wondering if anyone has liked or left a comment on their new statuses or photos.” Others spend time thinking what content they should update on their Facebook the following day to attract likes.

Half of the respondents say they will continue to access Facebook via other devices after logging out of their accounts on a computer.

The survey also found that there is no difference between male and female users in regard to the “behaviors of non-Facebooking time,” which is defined as not accessing Facebook at least one time per day.

Nearly 17 percent of the male respondents, and 20.4 percent of female, said they “anxiously wonder if anyone has liked a post or left a comment on their Facebook.”

But 70 percent of the respondents of both genders said it does not matter if they access Facebook daily or not.

More than half (51.9 percent) said they access Facebook “whenever they can,” while 22.5 percent said they only log in to Facebook at night; during weekends (13.4 percent); or during break times at schools (11.3 percent).

51.1 percent said they spend more than an hour every time they visit Facebook.

There are three main reasons for youths to join Facebook: to share information with friends (20.5 percent), to keep in touch with friends (21.7 percent), and to consume news, photos, and comments from friends (25.5 percent), according to the survey.