Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia.
Institute of Public Health of Niš, Niš, Serbia.
Front Public Health. 2023 Dec 18;11:1140961. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1140961. eCollection 2023.
Besides the well known good side of social media, it cannot be denied some of its negative effects. This two-phase study aimed to find out whether the usage of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic showed some significant association with depression and anxiety symptoms, and levels of stress.
The study was based on the survey of 1,476 randomly selected students at the initial phase (December 2019 to February 2020), and 1,400 students of the same cohort at the follow up phase (December 2021-February 2022). The collected data included socio-demographics, social media usage aspects, and the ones concerning levels of depression, stress and anxiety symptoms. Standardized questionnaires - the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) was applied to measure the levels of social media addiction, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 42) was administered to evaluate the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.
The comparison of responses regarding the six components of online social media addiction, which constitute the BSMAS, between the two phases of the study showed significant difference ( < 0.01) in favor of the follow up phase in the raised scores of all but one component. The probable severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress were notably enhanced during the peak of pandemic, and all three of them were positively correlated with all 6 BSMAS components ( < 0.01). The results also indicate that students, who consumed alcohol beverages and psychoactive substances more frequently in the pandemic, exhibited more noticeable symptoms of depression ( < 0.01, for both associations). Higher levels of anxiety symptoms in students were found to be associated with longer sleep during the night ( < 0.01), increased alcoholic beverages consumption ( < 0.01). Stress levels had the strongest correlations with consuming alcoholic beverages during the pandemic ( = 0.16, < 0.01).
The comparison between two phases of this follow-up study revealed significant changes in the Internet usage characteristics, which may have had an essential influence on the investigated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. However, other factors that may have influenced student's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic should also be considered.
社交媒体除了众所周知的好处外，其负面影响也不容忽视。本项两阶段研究旨在探讨在 COVID-19 大流行期间使用社交媒体是否与抑郁、焦虑症状和压力水平有显著关联。
该研究基于对 1476 名随机选择的学生（2019 年 12 月至 2020 年 2 月）在初始阶段的调查，以及同一队列的 1400 名学生在随访阶段（2021 年 12 月至 2022 年 2 月）的调查。收集的数据包括社会人口统计学资料、社交媒体使用方面以及抑郁、压力和焦虑症状水平。采用标准化问卷——卑尔根社交媒体成瘾量表（BSMAS）来衡量社交媒体成瘾水平，采用抑郁焦虑压力量表（DASS 42）评估抑郁、焦虑和压力症状。
比较两个研究阶段在线社交媒体成瘾的六个组成部分的回答，BSMAS 的六个组成部分中，除了一个组成部分外，其余五个组成部分的得分在随访阶段都有显著提高（ < 0.01）。在大流行高峰期，抑郁、焦虑和压力的可能严重或极度严重症状显著加重，且三者均与 BSMAS 的所有六个组成部分呈正相关（ < 0.01）。结果还表明，在大流行期间更频繁地饮酒和使用精神活性物质的学生表现出更明显的抑郁症状（ < 0.01，两种关联均如此）。研究发现，焦虑症状水平较高的学生夜间睡眠时间较长（ < 0.01），饮酒量增加（ < 0.01）。压力水平与大流行期间饮酒的相关性最强（ = 0.16， < 0.01）。
本随访研究的两阶段比较揭示了互联网使用特征的显著变化，这可能对所调查的抑郁、焦虑和压力症状产生了重要影响。然而，在 COVID-19 大流行期间影响学生心理健康的其他因素也应予以考虑。
