Health-related social media use and COVID-19 anxiety in adolescence : health anxiety as covariate and moderator
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F23%3A00134113" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/23:00134113 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1079730" target="_blank" >https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1079730</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1079730" target="_blank" >10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1079730</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Health-related social media use and COVID-19 anxiety in adolescence : health anxiety as covariate and moderator
Original language description
Background: Adolescents can benefit from engagement with health-related content on social media (e.g., viewing, commenting, or sharing content related to diseases, prevention, or healthy lifestyle). Nevertheless, such content may be distressing or exaggerated and present a challenge to mental well-being, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rumination about such content may lead to COVID-19 anxiety. Yet, the individual factors that would explain the association between health-related social media use (SMU) and COVID-19 anxiety are understudied. Objective: In the current study, we aimed to fill the gap by investigating the association between health-related social media use (SMU) and COVID-19 anxiety in light of several individual factors: health anxiety, eHealth literacy, and mild and severe experience with COVID-19 infection. We (1) studied the relationship between individual factors and health-related SMU, (2) tested health anxiety as a moderator in the association between health-related SMU and COVID-19 anxiety, and (3) explored a direct effect of experience with COVID-19 on COVID-19 anxiety. Methods: Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed cross-sectional data from a representative sample of 2,500 Czech adolescents aged 11–16, 50% girls. Sociodemographic measures, health-related SMU, COVIDCOVID-19 anxiety, health anxiety, eHealth literacy, and mild and severe experience with COVID-19 infection were assessed with an anonymous online survey. The data were collected in June 2021. Results: We conducted a path analysis to test the main relationships and an additional simple-slopes analysis to explore the moderating effect of health anxiety. Higher health anxiety and eHealth literacy were associated with increased health-related SMU. The effect of experience with COVID-19 infection on both COVID-19 anxiety and health-related SMU was negligible. Health-related SMU and COVID-19 anxiety were positively associated, however, only for adolescents high in health anxiety. For other adolescents, the two variables were unrelated. Conclusion: Our findings show that adolescents with higher health anxiety and eHealth literacy engage in health-related SMU more intensively. Furthermore, for adolescents high in health anxiety, the frequency of health-related SMU is associated with the risk of COVID-19 anxiety. This is likely due to differences in media use. Adolescents with high health anxiety may use social media for content that is more likely to lead to COVID-19 anxiety compared to other adolescents. We recommend focusing on the identification of such content, which may lead to more precise recommendations regarding health-related SMU compared to cut-back on the frequency of overall SMU.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GX19-27828X" target="_blank" >GX19-27828X: Modelling the future: Understanding the impact of technology on adolescent’s well-being</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN
1664-1078
e-ISSN
1664-1078
Volume of the periodical
14
Issue of the periodical within the volume
May
Country of publishing house
CH - SWITZERLAND
Number of pages
12
Pages from-to
1-12
UT code for WoS article
000987201500001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85159927497