Zhou Dong, Xu Yi, He Qixuan
School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Nov 6;11(21):2909. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11212909.
While previous studies have investigated the influence of new media on mental health, little is known about its effects on the mental health of married women. This is a crucial research area, given that married women commonly encounter distinct mental health difficulties. Also, current research fails to provide comprehensive, population-based studies, with most relying on cross-sectional designs. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between new media use and mental health among married women in China, utilizing a nationally representative longitudinal dataset. We utilized a balanced panel dataset from 2016 to 2020 to establish a causal connection between internet use and the mental health of these women. Our findings indicate that internet use has a positive impact on the mental health of married women in China. Additionally, a structural estimation model (SEM) with 2020 wave data was utilized to investigate various new media use effects and explore mediating pathways of marital satisfaction. Consistently, there were negative findings between new media use, marital satisfaction, and depression. Furthermore, it was determined that new media usage had a significant negative impact on married women's overall satisfaction with their spouses' housework contribution, which, in turn, negatively affected marital satisfaction as a whole. The pathways that mediate the effect of marital satisfaction on depression differ across general internet use, streaming media use, and WeChat use. Examining various theoretical perspectives, we interpreted the indirect impact of new media use on mental health through marital satisfaction as passive mediation.
虽然先前的研究调查了新媒体对心理健康的影响，但对于其对已婚女性心理健康的影响却知之甚少。鉴于已婚女性通常会遇到独特的心理健康问题，这是一个至关重要的研究领域。此外，目前的研究未能提供基于人群的全面研究，大多数研究依赖横断面设计。因此，本研究旨在利用具有全国代表性的纵向数据集，调查中国已婚女性新媒体使用与心理健康之间的关系。我们使用了2016年至2020年的平衡面板数据集，以建立互联网使用与这些女性心理健康之间的因果联系。我们的研究结果表明，互联网使用对中国已婚女性的心理健康有积极影响。此外，利用2020年调查数据的结构估计模型（SEM）来研究各种新媒体使用效应，并探索婚姻满意度的中介途径。一致的是，新媒体使用、婚姻满意度和抑郁之间存在负面结果。此外，研究还确定，新媒体使用对已婚女性对配偶家务贡献的总体满意度有显著负面影响，进而对整体婚姻满意度产生负面影响。婚姻满意度对抑郁影响的中介途径在一般互联网使用、流媒体使用和微信使用方面存在差异。通过审视各种理论观点，我们将新媒体使用通过婚姻满意度对心理健康的间接影响解释为被动中介。
