A three-wave panel study on longitudinal relations between problematic social media use and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Blasi, Maria Di; Salerno, Laura; Albano, Gaia; Caci, Barbara; Esposito, Giovanna; Salcuni, Silvia; Gelo, Omar Carlo Gioacchino; Mazzeschi, Claudia; Merenda, Aluette; Giordano, Cecilia; Coco, Gianluca Lo

doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107430

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The effect did not change, after controlling for the type of COVID-19 phase (II vs. III), gender, and all COVID-19 disease-related variables. Our findings are in line with previous studies that found a positive effect of SM use in overcoming the negative consequences of COVID-19-related social isolation, by reducing loneliness and increasing social connectedness [66][67][68]. However, other studies reported a detrimental association, by outlining that COVID-19-related restrictive measures and lockdown favored an excessive SM use and increased the risk of developing a PSMU [39,[69][70][71].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Use of social network as a coping strategy for depression among young people during the COVID-19 lockdown: findings from the COMET collaborative study

et al. 2022

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Background Use of social media (SM) has exponentially grown particularly among youths in the past two years, due to COVID-19-related changing lifestyles. Based on the Italian COvid Mental hEalth Trial (COMET), we investigated the association between SM use and depressive symptoms among Italian young adults (aged 18–24). Methods The COMET is a nationwide multi-center cross-sectional study that investigated socio-demographic data, social networking addiction (BSNAS), depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21), as well as impulsiveness (BIS-15) and aggressiveness (AQ) in a large sample of youngsters, in order to assess the association between BSNAS and DASS-21 indices. Mediation analyses were performed to evaluate the role of impulsiveness and aggressive personality traits in the association between SM use (SMU) and depression. Results 75.8% of the sample (n = 491) had a problematic SMU. SMU was reduced by high AQ and high DASS-21 scores (F = 42.338, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.207). Mediation analyses showed that SMU negatively predicted depressive symptomatology with the interaction mediated by AQ total (ß = − 0.1075), physical (ß = − 0.207) and anger (ß = − 0.0582), BIS-15 total (ß = − 0.0272) and attentional (ß = − 0.0302). High depressive levels were predicted by high AQ scores, low SMU levels, low verbal and physical AQ, and low attentional BIS-15 (F = 30.322, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.273). Depressive symptomatology negatively predicted SMU with their interaction mediated by AQ total (ß = − 0.1640), verbal (ß = 0.0436) and anger (ß = − 0.0807), BIS-15 total (ß = − 0.0448) and attentional (ß = − 0.0409). Conclusions SMU during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a beneficial role in buffering negative consequences linked to social isolation due to quarantine measures, despite this association being mediated by specific personality traits.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Use of social network as a coping strategy for depression among young people during the COVID-19 lockdown: findings from the COMET collaborative study

et al. 2022

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“…PFU encompasses different domains (e.g., passive use, social comparison, FoMO) which are related to the individual’s need for relatedness, which may lead to lower well-being or distress. However, early research into PFU-well-being effects relied primarily on cross-sectional data 6 and did not take into account how these effects varied in magnitude between individuals 32 , 33 . Thus, examining how PFU characteristics co-occur may provide a valuable research option.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A longitudinal investigation on problematic Facebook use, psychological distress and well-being during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic

Bonfanti

Salerno

Brugnera

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The social isolation and the subsequent, increased use of Social Networking Sites due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on subjective well-being around the world. The present longitudinal study examined whether changes in psychological distress and well-being during the Italian second wave of the pandemic differ among people with different levels of Problematic Facebook Use (PFU). A total of 493 participants (Mage = 24.55 ± 7.25; 80.3% females) completed measures of passive use of Facebook, social comparison orientation on Facebook, fear of missing out, psychological distress (depressive symptoms and fear of COVID-19 pandemic) and well-being across three waves. Latent class analysis (LCA) categorized participants into three groups with different PFU levels: healthy users, moderate PFU users, and high PFU users. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) showed that the between-person level (class membership) accounted for most of the variability in psychological distress and well-being. No significant changes were found in psychological distress and well-being over time, but the High PFU users showed greater levels of psychological distress and lower levels of well-being at each time point. The findings of this study suggest that the relationship between PFU, psychological distress and well-being may reflect trait-like time-invariant differences between individuals rather than state-like changes.

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“…Thus, participants clustered as "High PFU users" reported signi cantly higher levels of depressive symptoms and fear of COVID-19 as well as lower levels of well-being, which remained consistent over time. Our results may suggest that the association between the severity of PFU, psychological distress and well-being may be related to stable trait-like and timeinvariant differences between individuals (between-person variance) rather than state-like changes (within-person variance) which commonly refers to those that occur from one assessment point to the next one [30].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…PFU encompasses different domains (e.g., passive use, social comparison, FoMO) which are related to the individual's need for relatedness, which may lead to lower well-being or distress. However, early research into PFU-well-being effects relied primarily on cross-sectional data [6] and did not take into account how these effects varied in magnitude between individuals [30,31]. Thus, examining how PFU characteristics co-occur may provide a valuable research option.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present investigation we focus on the link between patterns of PFU and well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has thus far not received extensive research attention. Although people have been using Facebook heavily for sharing COVID-19 information [36], prior studies showed an association between problematic social media or passive use, online social comparison, FoMO with different facets of an individual's distress during the rst wave of the pandemic [1,2,20,30,37,38]. However, no prior longitudinal studies examined the relationship between patterns of PFU, well-being and distress during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Problematic Facebook use, psychological distress and well-being during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal investigation

Bonfanti¹,

Salerno²,

Brugnera

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The social isolation and the subsequent, increased use of Social Networking Sites due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on subjective well-being around the world. The present longitudinal study examined whether changes in psychological distress and well-being during the Italian second wave of the pandemic differ among people with different levels of Problematic Facebook Use (PFU). A total of 493 participants (Mage = 24.55±7.25; 80.3% females) completed measures of passive use of Facebook, social comparison orientation on Facebook, fear of missing out, psychological distress (depressive symptoms and fear of COVID-19 pandemic) and well-being across three waves. Latent class analysis (LCA) categorized participants into three groups with different PFU levels: Healthy users, Moderate PFU users, and High PFU users. Hierarchical Linear Modeling showed that the between-person level (class membership) accounted for most of the variability in psychological distress and well-being. No significant changes were found in psychological distress and well-being over time, but the High PFU users showed greater levels of psychological distress and lower levels of well-being at each time point. The findings of this study suggest that the relationship between PFU, psychological distress and well-being may reflect trait-like time-invariant differences between individuals rather than state-like changes.

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A three-wave panel study on longitudinal relations between problematic social media use and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 20 publications

References 61 publications

Use of social network as a coping strategy for depression among young people during the COVID-19 lockdown: findings from the COMET collaborative study

Use of social network as a coping strategy for depression among young people during the COVID-19 lockdown: findings from the COMET collaborative study

A longitudinal investigation on problematic Facebook use, psychological distress and well-being during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic

Problematic Facebook use, psychological distress and well-being during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal investigation

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