Social Media Use and Mental Health during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Moderator Role of Disaster Stressor and Mediator Role of Negative Affect

Background Informed by the differential susceptibility to media effects model (DSMM), the current study aims to investigate associations of COVID‐19‐related social media use with mental health outcomes and to uncover potential mechanisms underlying the links. Methods A sample of 512 (62.5% women; Mage = 22.12 years, SD = 2.47) Chinese college students participated in this study from 24 March to 1 April 2020 via online questionnaire. They completed measures of social media use, the COVID‐19 stressor, negative affect, secondary traumatic stress (STS), depression, and anxiety as well as covariates. Results As expected, results from regression analyses indicated that a higher level of social media use was associated with worse mental health. More exposure to disaster news via social media was associated with greater depression for participants with high (but not low) levels of the disaster stressor. Moreover, path analysis showed negative affect mediated the relationship of social media use and mental health. Conclusions These findings suggest that the disaster stressor may be a risk factor that amplifies the deleterious impact of social media use on depression. In addition, excessive exposure to disaster on social media may trigger negative affect, which may in turn contribute to mental health problems. Future interventions to improve mental health should consider elements of both disaster stressor and negative affect.