Health-related social media use and COVID-19 anxiety in adolescence : health anxiety as covariate and moderator

Kód výsledku v 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>

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Health-related social media use and COVID-19 anxiety in adolescence : health anxiety as covariate and moderator

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Health-related social media use and COVID-19 anxiety in adolescence : health anxiety as covariate and moderator

Popis výsledku anglicky

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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GX19-27828X" target="_blank" >GX19-27828X: Pohled do budoucnosti: Porozumění vlivu technologií na “well-being” adolescentů</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2023

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Frontiers in Psychology

ISSN

1664-1078

e-ISSN

1664-1078

Svazek periodika

14

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

May

Stát vydavatele periodika

CH - Švýcarská konfederace

Počet stran výsledku

12

Strana od-do

1-12

Kód UT WoS článku

000987201500001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85159927497