Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the general population’s life worldwide. People may spend more time on social media because of policies like “work at home”. Using a cross-sectional dataset collected through an online survey in February 2020, in China, we examined (1) the relationships between social media activities and people’s mental health status and (2) the moderation effect of emotional-regulation strategies. The sample included people aged ≥18 years from 32 provinces and regions in China (N = 3159). The inferential analyses included a set of multiple linear regressions with interactions. Our results showed that sharing timely, accurate, and positive COVID-19 information, reducing excessive discussions on COVID-19, and promoting caring online interactions rather than being judgmental, might positively associate with the general public’s psychological well-being. Additionally, the relationships between social media activities and psychological well-being varied at different emotion-regulation strategy levels. Adopting the cognitive reappraisal strategy might allay the adverse relationships between certain social media activities and mental health indicators. Our findings expanded the theory of how social media activities can be associated with a human being’s mental health and how it can interact with emotion-regulation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
On 11 March, the WHO officially declared the COVID-19 as a pandemic
The findings of this study revealed that engaging in social media communication was the findings of this study revealed that engaging in social media communication was not not necessarily associated with better mental health status for the general population, which was necessarily associated with better mental health status for the general population, which was inconsistent with Fergie and colleague’s [49] suggestion
The findings provided empirical evidence on the importance of cognitive reappraisal on people’s mental health status when dealing with social media activities, especially when the general public was under the stress resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
As of 8 September 2020, it has spread to 216 countries, with over 27 million confirmed cases around the world [1]. To combat the COVID-19, the Chinese government implemented strict policies for a massive lockdown, as well as tracking and isolating suspect cases for the first time, which significantly lowered the confirmed cases within two months. Governments of other countries have imposed public control policies, such as working-from-home solutions, as well as travel and gathering restrictions. The “desperate flea” [2] phenomena have become universal around the world, where many people stay at home and are socially isolated. A number of studies have pointed out that pandemic [3,4] and social isolation [5,6] could negatively influence the mental health of the general population. Public Health 2020, 17, 8931; doi:10.3390/ijerph17238931 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International journal of environmental research and public health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
