The Effect of Concerns About COVID-19 on Anxiety, Stress, Parental Burnout, and Emotion Regulation: The Role of Susceptibility to Digital Emotion Contagion

Abstract

Background and aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused social and economic turmoil, which has led to enormous strain for many families. Past work with pandemic outbreaks suggests that media attention can increase anxiety and compensatory behaviors. Social isolation can lead to increase in online communication and parents who use social media may be affected by other people's emotions online through what is known as digital emotion contagion (DEC). The current study aimed to examine the role of DEC in the relationship between stress, concern about COVID-19, parental burnout and emotion regulation (ER).Methods: In April 2020, an online survey was advertised in Social Media Parenting Groups and published on FIU Psychology online research system SONA. Data were analyzed using correlational analysis, linear and multiple linear regression, and moderation analysis.Results: Concern about COVID-19 predicted stress, depression, and parental burnout. Susceptibility to DEC significantly increased the impact of stress on parental burnout. Having relatives infected with COVID-19 increased the effect of DEC on parental burnout. A higher level of ER buffered the relationship between emotion contagion and concern about COVID-19.Conclusion: These findings suggest that susceptibility to digital emotion contagion may have a negative effect on parents. Digital emotion contagion may increase parental burnout and is tied to stress.

Social Media and Emotional Burnout Regulation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multilevel Approach

“…The results in this study reveal that individuals who frequently disclose pandemic-related feelings and retweet COVID-19–related negative emotions on social media reported less reappraisal of the stressful situation. The possible maladaptive effects of social media use during the pandemic is consistent with several recent studies in the context of the current COVID-19 outbreak [ 8 , 10 , 64 ]. Based on the existing literature, this study analyzes social media in a more refined manner.…”

“…During the lockdown, individuals in isolation turn to social media to seek and share health information, exchange social support, and express pandemic-generated feelings [ 8 ]. Although previous studies suggest that social media use can promote psychological well-being through satisfying individual’s need for belonging, receiving informational and emotional support, and reducing stress and loneliness [ 9 ], empirical evidence equally reveals that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media use exacerbates the anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms people have already experienced [ 8 , 10 ]. The effectiveness of social media–based emotion regulation, along with its relationship with the traditional regulation strategies, calls for a careful and systematic examination.…”

“…Additionally, existing COVID-19–related studies on the association between social media use and mental health focus on social media use alone without considering other possible methods of emotion regulation [ 8 , 10 ]. However, the extant literature on emotion regulation and well-being suggests that, although regulation effectiveness differs across each strategy, there is no single best and cure-all solution [ 7 ].…”

“…The prevalence of social technologies has expanded and transformed how individuals share and regulate emotional experiences. Recent studies have witnessed an increase in social media use and pandemic-related online expression, particularly aiming to manage the stress, anxiety, and emotional burnout toward COVID-19 [ 10 , 23 ]. During lockdown and social distancing, individuals express emotional experiences and release pent-up feelings to their social network and beyond through posting on social media [ 8 ].…”

“…Through retweeting, emotional experiences can be transmitted from one person to another and become contagious . Given that the COVID-19 outbreak has generated impacts on a large scale, individuals are more susceptible to take on other people’s stress, anxiety, and emotional burnout on social media [ 10 ]. Considering the effects of social media self-disclosure and emotion contagion, we further hypothesize that hyperpersonal-level emotion regulation, such as sharing feelings or retweeting emotional content on social media, may generate maladaptive effects.…”