Social Media Use and Mental Health during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Moderator Role of Disaster Stressor and Mediator Role of Negative Affect

Abstract

Background Informed by the differential susceptibility to media effects model (DSMM), the current study aims to investigate associations of COVID‐19‐related social media use with mental health outcomes and to uncover potential mechanisms underlying the links. Methods A sample of 512 (62.5% women; M age = 22.12 years, SD = 2.47) Chinese college students participated in this study from 24 March to 1 April 2020 via online questionnaire. They completed measures of social media use, the COVID‐19 stressor, negative affect, secondary traumatic stress (STS), depression, and anxiety as well as covariates. Results As expected, results from regression analyses indicated that a higher level of social media use was associated with worse mental health. More exposure to disaster news via social media was associated with greater depression for participants with high (but not low) levels of the disaster stressor. Moreover, path analysis showed negative affect mediated the relationship of social media use and mental health. Conclusions These findings suggest that the disaster stressor may be a risk factor that amplifies the deleterious impact of social media use on depression. In addition, excessive exposure to disaster on social media may trigger negative affect, which may in turn contribute to mental health problems. Future interventions to improve mental health should consider elements of both disaster stressor and negative affect.

Exploring the Role of Social Media Use Motives, Psychological Well-Being, Self-Esteem, and Affect in Problematic Social Media Use

“…In this context, it is worth mentioning the process of upward social comparison, which can be triggered by comparing the number of "Likes" with others or by comparing life styles (Vogel et al, 2014). Taken together, these findings may provide useful information with potential clinical implications about the way individuals use social media in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as recent studies have reported that increased exposure to disaster-related information on social media may trigger negative affect, which can elicit mental health disorders (Zhao and Zhou, 2020), a contention that is aligned with the findings obtained since negative affect was a strong predictor of PSMU.…”

Coping With the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Gender Differences in Stress and Mental Health Among University Students

“…In contrast, among all participants, frequent social media use similarly related to negative mental health. Indeed, several recent reports link social media use to poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic ( 9 , 54 , 55 ). The relationship between frequent, or excessive, social media use and poor mental health has been shown prior to the pandemic ( 56 , 57 ).…”

Frequency and perceived effectiveness of mental health providers’ coping strategies during COVID-19

“…More than half of the sample also reported limiting their exposure to traditional and social media as a way to cope. This may be an effective strategy based on historical findings of associations between adverse mental health consequences and repeated exposure to media after tragic events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Otto et al, 2007 ) and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing (Holman et al, 2014 ), as well as recent data linking increased social media use with increased depression during the COVID-19 pandemic (Holingue et al, 2020 ; Sun et al, 2021 ; Zhao & Zhou, 2020 ). In sum, the fact that the overwhelming majority of respondents reported engaging in adaptive and effective coping strategies is encouraging and suggests both awareness and practice of multiple empirically supported behavioral approaches for managing stress (e.g., Posluns & Gall, 2020 ).…”