Social Connectedness and Negative Emotion Modulation: Social Media Use for Coping Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Minas Michikyan; Kaveri Subrahmanyam; Pamela Regan; Linda G Castillo; Lindsay Ham; Audrey Harkness; Seth J Schwartz

doi:10.1177/21676968231176109

Social Connectedness and Negative Emotion Modulation: Social Media Use for Coping Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emerg Adulthood. 2023 Aug;11(4):1039-1054. doi: 10.1177/21676968231176109. Epub 2023 May 22.

Authors

Minas Michikyan¹, Kaveri Subrahmanyam^{1

2}, Pamela Regan¹, Linda G Castillo³, Lindsay Ham⁴, Audrey Harkness⁵, Seth J Schwartz⁶

Affiliations

¹ Psychology, California State University-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² College of Arts & Sciences, University of North Florida, Florida, FL, USA.
³ Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
⁵ Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
⁶ Department of Kinesiology, Health Education, and Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

Abstract

Using a cross-sectional survey study with undergraduate students (N = 1257; M age = 20; 908 women) in the United States, this paper examined college students' use of social media for coping and its association with COVID-19-related worries (loneliness, interpersonal stress, anxiety) and mental health outcomes (depression, generalized anxiety, and life satisfaction). Undergraduate students were found to use social media frequently during the pandemic to socially connect with others online and to modulate negative emotions. Structural equation modeling revealed that COVID-19-related worries were positively related to social media use for coping and that coping using social media was negatively related to general mental health concerns (depression, generalized anxiety) and positively associated with general mental health wellness (i.e., life satisfaction). Implications of using social media for coping during the pandemic for college student mental health are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; coping; mental health; psychological well-being; social media; structural equation modeling.