Colleges Students' Social Media use and Mental Wellbeing During COVID-19 Outbreak

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

In 2020 Spring, many universities across the United States closed campuses and transformed to online instruction due to the COVID-19 outbreak. College students had to adjust to the new living situation, of which staying online is the main, if not the only venue to stay connected with others outside their residency. As the pandemic generates a stronger need for support while there is a significant gap left from the lack of social interaction in the offline setting, the emotional support and companionship college students obtained from social media may serve as buffers for college students’ mental health; one the other hand, social media use may bring additional stressors for mental well-being, such as information overload, lack of assurance of COVID-19 related information and concern about COVID-19. Grounded in the multi-activity framework of social media use (Frison & Eggermont, 2016), this study (1) identified types of social media activities college students engaged in during the pandemic; (2) explored how different social media activities amplified or reduced risks for college students’ mental health via the aforementioned stressors and buffers.

Between April 19th and May 14th, 2020, a total of 846 undergraduate students (73% female; 79.1% White) attending a large Midwestern university participated an online survey about their social media use, life experience and feelings since COVID-19 outbreak.

The study identified four major types of social media activities college students engaged in during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: information consumption related to COVID-19, direct communication with friends and family members, self-presentation related to COVID-19 (e.g. posting/sharing contents about COVID-19) and self-presentation non-related to COVID-19.

Analyses based on structural equation modeling showed that controlling for time spent on social media during the COVID-19 outbreak, frequency of engaging in information consumption related to COVID-19 on social media was positively associated with all three hypothesized stressors (i.e.information overload, lack of assurance of COVID-19 related information and concern about COVID-19). Direct communication with friends or family members during the COVID-19 outbreak, on the other hand, was positively associated with both buffers (i.e. emotional support and companionship). Engagement in self-presentation, whether it was about COVID-19 or not, was associated with neither hypothesized buffers or stressors. Interestingly, direct communication with friends and family members was positively correlated with perceived complexity of COVID-19 information. Whereas all stressors are positively associated with depression and anxiety, both social media use related buffers are negatively associated with depression and anxiety. Further mediational analyses confirmed that the relationships between social media use during COVID-19 outbreak and college students’ mental health outcomes were mediated by hypothesized stressors and buffers.

This study revealed both bright and dark sides to social media use during the pandemic and potential mechanisms accounting for these impacts on college students’ mental health. Findings of the research provided insights on designing interventions that help college students to be more mindful of their social media use and to to leverage social media as a tool to cope with a large-scale public crisis.

Authors

• Yanzhuo Niu, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Tingting Fan, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• B. Bradford Brown, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yen Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author