Mental health toll from the coronavirus: Social media usage reveals Wuhan residents’ depression and secondary trauma in the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

This study investigates the possible association between social media usage and the mental health toll from the coronavirus at the peak of Wuhan's COVID-19 outbreak. Informed by the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model and Health Belief Model, it proposes a conceptual model to study how people in Wuhan – the first epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic – used social media and its effects on users' mental health conditions and health behavior change. The results show that social media usage was related to both depression and secondary trauma, which also predicted health behavior change. But no relation was detected between health behavior change and mental health conditions. As the virus struck, social media usage was rewarding to Wuhan people who gained informational, emotional, and peer support from the health information shared on social media. An excessive use of social media, however, led to mental health issues. The results imply that taking a social media break may promote well-being during the pandemic, which is crucial to mitigating mental health harm inflicted by the pandemic.

Association of Social Media Use With Mental Health Conditions of Nonpatients During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Insights from a National Survey Study

“…One of the key lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that living in this public health crisis is extremely stressful for everyone, including those who appear healthy and have not contracted the virus [ 1 ]. This was evident in China, where fear, worry, and anxiety about COVID-19 and its health risks were overwhelming as soon as the disease spread across the country [ 2 ]. Following the lockdown announced in Wuhan on January 23, 2020, other Chinese cities quickly restricted people from moving around.…”

Psychological resistance of student youth to information stress in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Чрезмерное увлечение социальными сетями приводили к росту тревоги и депрессии. Умеренное же использование социальных сетей с целью получения объективной информации и поддержки друзей и близких способствовало смягчению ущерба психическому здоровью, нанесенного пандемией [14].…”

Instagram sebagai Medium Komunikasi Risiko di Masa Pandemi COVID-19: Studi Netnografi terhadap Komunitas Online KawalCOVID19.id

“…Banyak kajian tentang media sosial telah dilakukan selama krisis kesehatan pandemi COVID-19 ini, kajian tersebut umumnya seputar topik; diseminasi informasi kesehatan (Abdoli & Heidarnejadi, 2020;Apuke & Omar, 2020;Barua et al, 2020;Islam et al, 2020;Kaya, 2020;Merchant & Lurie, 2020;Moran, 2020;Tsui et al, 2020), kesehatan mental (Gao et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Nabity-Grover et al, 2020;Naeem, 2021;Zhong et al, 2021), sentiment di media social (Bhat et al, 2020;Chakraborty et al, 2020), serta dukungan sosial dan manajemen pandemi melalui media sosial (Carlos et al, 2020;Li & Zhang, 2020).…”