Background

It still remains unclear whether problematic social media use (PSMU) is a cause or a consequence of psychological distress. The present study aimed to investigate the temporal relationships between PSMU and psychological distress through a three-wave panel study (between April and July 2020, with an interval of 1 month between each period of time).

Methods

3,912 adult Italian participants were surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic for psychological distress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) and PSMU (Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale). Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models were applied to disaggregate between-person from within-person associations as regards PSMU and an individual’s distress.

Results

On a between-person level we found that adults with higher PSMU also reported heightened levels of psychological distress across the three waves. However, on a within-person level, no cross-lagged associations were found between changes in distress and subsequent changes in PSMU and vice versa. The results were largely unchanged with the inclusion of participants’ gender and age or COVID-19-related fears as covariates, and when the three subscales of depression, anxiety and stress were examined in separate models.

Conclusions

The current study suggests that the link between PSMU and psychological distress is mainly driven by trait-like differences and not by state-like individual changes over time.

中文翻译：

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关于 COVID-19 大流行期间有问题的社交媒体使用与心理困扰之间纵向关系的三波小组研究

背景

目前尚不清楚有问题的社交媒体使用（PSMU）是心理困扰的原因还是结果。本研究旨在通过三波面板研究（2020年4月至7月，每个时间间隔1个月）探讨PSMU与心理困扰之间的时间关系。

方法

在 COVID-19 大流行期间，对 3,912 名意大利成年参与者进行了心理困扰（抑郁、焦虑和压力量表）和 PSMU（卑尔根社交媒体成瘾量表）的调查。随机截取交叉滞后面板模型用于将 PSMU 和个人痛苦方面的人与人之间的关联与人内关联分开。

结果

在人与人之间的层面上，我们发现 PSMU 较高的成年人在这三个波中也报告了较高的心理困扰水平。然而，在个人层面上，没有发现痛苦的变化与随后的 PSMU 变化之间存在交叉滞后关联，反之亦然。将参与者的性别和年龄或与 COVID-19 相关的恐惧作为协变量，并且在单独的模型中检查抑郁、焦虑和压力的三个分量表时，结果基本没有变化。

结论

目前的研究表明，PSMU 和心理困扰之间的联系主要是由特质差异驱动的，而不是随着时间的推移由状态类个体变化驱动的。