Liu Qiang, Su FeiFei, Mu Aruhan, Wu Xiang
School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People's Republic of China.
Yunnan Key Laboratory of Service Computing, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, 650221, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2024 Apr 12;17:1587-1609. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S450934. eCollection 2024.
How individuals engage with social media can significantly impact their psychological well-being. This study examines the impact of social media interactions on mental health, grounded in the frameworks of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory. It aims to uncover behavioral differences in information sharing between the general population and individuals with depression, while also elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying these disparities.
A pre-experiment (N=30) and three experiments (Experiment 1a N=200, Experiment 1b N=180, Experiment 2 N=128) were executed online. These experiments investigated the joint effects of information quality, content valence, self-referential processing, and depression level on the intention to share information. The research design incorporated within-subject and between-subject methods, utilizing SPSS and SPSS Process to conduct independent sample t-tests, two-factor ANOVA analyses, mediation analyses, and moderated mediation analyses to test our hypotheses.
Information quality and content valence significantly influence sharing intention. In scenarios involving low-quality information, individuals with depression are more inclined to share negative emotional content compared to the general population, and this tendency intensifies with the severity of depression. Moreover, self-referential processing acts as a mediator between emotional content and intention to share, yet this mediation effect weakens as the severity of depression rises.
Our study highlights the importance of promoting viewpoint diversity and breaking the echo chamber effect in social media to improve the mental health of individuals with depression. To achieve this goal, tailoring emotional content on social media could be a practical starting point for practice.
个体使用社交媒体的方式会对其心理健康产生重大影响。本研究以精细加工可能性模型和图式激活理论为框架，考察社交媒体互动对心理健康的影响。旨在揭示普通人群与抑郁症患者在信息分享方面的行为差异，同时阐明这些差异背后的心理机制。
在线进行了一项预实验（N = 30）和三项实验（实验1a，N = 200；实验1b，N = 180；实验2，N = 128）。这些实验研究了信息质量、内容效价、自我参照加工和抑郁水平对信息分享意愿的联合影响。研究设计采用了被试内和被试间方法，利用SPSS和SPSS Process进行独立样本t检验、双因素方差分析、中介分析和调节中介分析来检验我们的假设。
信息质量和内容效价显著影响分享意愿。在低质量信息的情境中，与普通人群相比，抑郁症患者更倾向于分享负面情绪内容，且这种倾向会随着抑郁程度的加重而增强。此外，自我参照加工在情绪内容和分享意愿之间起中介作用，但随着抑郁程度的增加，这种中介作用会减弱。
我们的研究强调了在社交媒体中促进观点多样性和打破回音室效应以改善抑郁症患者心理健康的重要性。为实现这一目标，在社交媒体上定制情绪内容可能是一个切实可行的实践起点。
