Ren Ruqin, Yan Bei
Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
School of Business, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Aug 22;13:964994. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964994. eCollection 2022.
The classic debate regarding the complex relationships between personal network, social media use, and mental well-being requires renewed examination in the novel context of pandemic-related social isolation.
We present two surveys conducted at (i) the earlier months of the pandemic and (ii) the end of large scale social-lockdown measures in the U.S. to explore the social and behavioral antecedents of mental health states relating to social media use. Study 1 tracked the longitudinal changes of personal network, social media use, and anxiety level of a group of individuals ( = 147) over a three-month period during the pandemic. Study 2 replicated and extended the theoretical model to a race-representative U.S. adult sample ( = 258).
Both studies consistently show that (1) more time on social media worsens anxiety. It also mediates the relationship between personal network size and anxiety. That is, a small personal network predicts more social media use, which is in turn related to increased anxiety. (2) Moreover, the effect of social media use on anxiety is mainly explained by news consumption on social media, rather than non-news related usage. (3) This link's strength is moderated by one's perception of COVID-19 impact, such that news consumption on social media increases anxiety more when the perceived impact is higher.
These results demonstrate communication technologies' increasingly critical and multifaceted role in affecting mental health conditions.
关于个人网络、社交媒体使用和心理健康之间复杂关系的经典辩论，需要在与疫情相关的社会隔离这一全新背景下重新审视。
我们展示了两项调查，一项在美国疫情早期进行，另一项在美国大规模社会封锁措施结束时进行，以探究与社交媒体使用相关的心理健康状态的社会和行为前因。研究1追踪了一组个体（n = 147）在疫情期间三个月内个人网络、社交媒体使用和焦虑水平的纵向变化。研究2将理论模型复制并扩展到一个具有种族代表性的美国成年人样本（n = 258）。
两项研究均一致表明：（1）花在社交媒体上的时间越多，焦虑感越强。它还介导了个人网络规模与焦虑之间的关系。也就是说，个人网络规模小预示着更多的社交媒体使用，而这反过来又与焦虑增加有关。（2）此外，社交媒体使用对焦虑的影响主要由社交媒体上的新闻消费来解释，而非与新闻无关的使用。（3）这种联系的强度受到个体对新冠疫情影响的认知的调节，即当感知到的影响更高时，社交媒体上的新闻消费会更显著地增加焦虑。
这些结果表明通信技术在影响心理健康状况方面发挥着日益关键和多方面的作用。
