Social Media, Anxiety and COVID-19 Lockdown Measurement Compliance (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of pharmaceutical research international, 2021
Need of Study: The quarantine would impact day-today employees and companies with daily profits. Confining abnormally reduced social and physical contact with others whereas loss of habits is direct linked to distress, monotony, social isolation and disappointment. Hence the investigator plans to assess the effect of social media on the mental health of quarantined people related to covid-19. Objectives: To assess the psychological impact (stress and anxiety level) on quarantine people. Methodology: The study was based on an evaluative approach. The population was about all adults, above 18-60 years of age who were quarantined. The sampling technique used in the study was probability convenient sampling and the tool was PSS scale and GAD-7 checklist. The data gathering process began based on the objectives and the hypothesis the data were statistically analyzed with various tests such as descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As of 20 October 2020, the virus had infected 8,202,552 people, with 220,061 deaths in US, and in countries around the world, over 38 million people have become infected and over one million have died. The virus usually spreads via respiratory droplets from an infected person. At the time of compiling this paper, while countries around the world are still striving to find a “pharmaceutical intervention (PI)”, including treatments and vaccines, they are left with only “non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)”, such as physical distancing, wearing masks, and maintaining personal hygiene. In the US, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five US territories issued mandatory stay-at-home orders between March 1 and 31 May 2020 to lower the risk of virus transmission. This study empirically examined how social connecte...
Behavioral Sciences
Previous research reported inconsistent results on the relationship between social media (SM) use and psychological well-being, suggesting the importance of assessing possible moderators, e.g., motives for SM use. However, no longitudinal study has yet investigated whether, among people who use SM, specific motives for using SM may represent protective/risk factors for the development of psychological distress, especially after a stressful event. Our longitudinal study aimed at assessing the moderating role of motives for using SM (i.e., coping, conformity, enhancement, social motives) in the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic-related post-traumatic stress symptoms during the lockdown and changes in general distress after lockdown. At Time 1 (during the first lockdown in Italy), 660 participants responded to an online survey, reporting their post-traumatic symptoms, motives for using SM, and general distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms). At Time 2 (three mont...
JMIR mental health, 2021
Table S1: Missing user analysis. Active social network app users have a higher burden of anxiety, stress, and trauma-related disorder diagnoses. Data represent N and percentage of available diagnoses unless otherwise specified, between missing or inconsistent users (social network app; n=100, communication app; n=68), i.e. time logged are either fewer than 22 days during the 44 days of the pre-lockdown period, or fewer than 26 days during the 51-days of lockdown period, and active users (social network app; n=42, communication app; n=74, greater than 22 days in pre-lockdown and greater than 26 days in lockdown). Psychiatric diagnosis categories are not mutually exclusive. Statistically significant differences between the clinical anxiety and nonclinical anxiety groups were obtained by two-sided t-test for age, GAD-7; two-sided z-test for gender, cohabitation status, coronavirus exposure risk items, and diagnosis; chi-square independence test for all other categorical variables. Pairwise nominal independence test shows that the significance in chi-square test in employment status variable is driven by an employee, student, or homemaker~unemployed without benefits and ~ retired, P=.05, .03 respectively).
International Journal of Media and Information Literacy, 2021
Recent research shows significant effects of the pandemic COVID-19 situation information in mass media on the population’s mental health. These effects have to be impartially assessed and thoroughly analyzed in order to prevent mental and psychosomatic diseases, maladjustment to restrictions caused by a lockdown. Social media platforms are among the most widely used sources of information in the world, the easy and inexpensive access to the internet and a large number of social networks make them the most effective ways to disseminate information. The problem is that this information may be truthful or fake. Mass media play a crucial role in people’s lives in regular situation and is especially significant in the situation of lockdown due to COVID-19 spreading. It is obvious that for complete understanding of people’s anxiety and unexplainable fear social surveys using standard psychological tools should be used, although special scales for evaluating pandemic effects on people’s li...
Impact of social media and over the top media during COVID-19 lockdown, a cross-sectional study
Impact of social media and over the top media during COVID-19 lockdown, a cross-sectional study, 2021
Background: Covid-19 outbreak has forced the governments of several countries to enforce lockdown to control the spread of the virus. Staying at their homes, people are subjected to use Social media (SM)/Over the top media (OTTM) for communication, information, and entertainment. The objective is to know the usage of SM/OTTM and the frequently used applications during the lockdown. Also, its association with health, information usage and education. Methods: An online survey was conducted for a month with a specially framed questionnaire which includes the aspects of SM/OTTM usage, health issues due to SM/OTTM usage, education, and information during Covid-19 lockdown. Results: Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test showed a significant difference between time spent on SM/OTTM before and after the lockdown and the median time used was shifted from 2-4 hours to 4-6 hours. Pearson Chi-Square test was done comparing the usage of SM/OTTM to other variables which showed significance in the aspects of interpersonal problems, usage out of boredom, staying connected to friends/family, online workouts/diet plans, false information, awareness on Covid-19, and cyberbullying. Sleeplessness, headache, eye complaints were predominant among the physical ailments whereas Stress, irritability, restlessness, anxiety were predominant among psychological affections due to SM/OTTM usage. Conclusions: SM/OTTM was frequently used and played a key role during the Covid-19 lockdown. SM has helped people to stay connected, acquire information, and stay updated on the pandemic. SM is also responsible for physical and mental health affections due to prolonged usage and exposure to false information during the lockdown.
Discover Psychology, 2024
The COVID-19 outbreak, as an international health emergency, led to uncertainty. Pandemics can be stressful and anxietyproducing for community individuals. Moreover, due to lockdown measures implemented to slow down the spread of the disease, an increase in the usage of social media was reported. Therefore, this study aims to find the prevalence of mental health problems and the level of social media usage during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Kurdistan region, Iraq. Furthermore, the relationship between mental health problems (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress) and social media usage is explored. The study was cross-sectional; the data was collected through a snowball sampling method in which 355 participants completed an online questionnaire. Social networking usage questionnaire, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-15 (HSCL-25), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were used as measurement tools. The results showed that the level of social networking usage was moderate. As for mental health problems, 76.5% of the respondents showed moderate to high stress levels, 56.4% reported experiencing depression, and 37.4% reported experiencing anxiety. Significant gender differences were found in depression, anxiety, and stress, with females scoring higher in all categories. In the mental health problem domains, only depression scores positively correlated with social media usage. The findings also showed social networking usage is associated with higher depression and anxiety; however, the effect sizes were small. Therefore, more research into this matter is necessary in the cultural context of the Kurdistan region to reach conclusive results.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prompted people to face a distressing and unexpected situation. Uncertainty and social distancing changed people’s behaviors, impacting on their feelings, daily habits, and social relationships, which are core elements in human well-being. In particular, restrictions due to the quarantine increased feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Within this context, the use of digital technologies has been recommended to relieve stress and anxiety and to decrease loneliness, even though the overall effects of social media consumption during pandemics still need to be carefully addressed. In this regard, social media use evidence risk and opportunities. In fact, according to a compensatory model of Internet-related activities, the online environment may be used to alleviate negative feelings caused by distressing life circumstances, despite potentially leading to negative outcomes. The present study examined whether individuals who were experiencing high levels of loneliness during the forced isolation for COVID-19 pandemic were more prone to feel anxious, and whether their sense of loneliness prompted excessive social media use. Moreover, the potentially mediating effect of excessive social media use in the relationship between perceived loneliness and anxiety was tested. A sample of 715 adults (71.5% women) aged between 18 and 72 years old took part in an online survey during the period of lockdown in Italy. The survey included self-report measures to assess perceived sense of loneliness, excessive use of social media, and anxiety. Participants reported that they spent more hours/day on social media during the pandemic than before the pandemic. We found evidence that perceived feelings of loneliness predicted both excessive social media use and anxiety, with excessive social media use also increasing anxiety levels. These findings suggest that isolation probably reinforced the individuals’ sense of loneliness, strengthening the need to be part of virtual communities. However, the facilitated and prolonged access to social media during the COVID-19 pandemic risked to further increase anxiety, generating a vicious cycle that in some cases may require clinical attention.
2020
BACKGROUND The novelty of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it occurs in the globalized society enhanced by digital capabilities. OBJECTIVE To analyze the psychological and emotional states of participants in different pandemic-related situations together with their digital and physical distancing behaviors. METHODS The online survey was applied during the ascending phase of the pandemic in March 2020 in two neighboring EU countries, Italy and Croatia. The study subjects involved four groups, two directly affected by epidemiological measures and two serving as controls – (1) participants from Italy who were in lockdown (Italy group), (2) participants from Croatia who were not in lockdown, but who were in direct contact with an infected person and underwent epidemiological measures (CRO-contact group), (3) participants from Croatia who were in analogous situation but not near the same infected person (CRO-no contact group) and (4) participants from Croatia who were not aware of any infec...
2021
Background Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the strict national policies regarding social distancing behavior in Europe, America and Australia, people became reliant on social media as a means for gathering information and a tool for staying connected to family, friends and work. This is the first trans-national study exploring the experiences and challenges of using social media while in lockdown or shelter in place during the current pandemic. Methods This study was part of a wider cross-sectional online survey conducted in Norway, UK, USA and Australia during April/May 2020. The research question was to explore the experiences and challenges of social media users during the Covid-19 pandemic. 3810 people took part in the survey and 1991 responses were included in the analysis . Thematic analysis was conducted independently by two researchers. Results Three overarching themes identified were: Emotional/Mental Health, Information and Being Connected. Participants experienced that u...