Purpose: Social media has become increasingly part of our everyday lives and is influential in shaping the habits, sociability, and mental health of individuals, particularly among students. This study aimed to examine the relationship between changes over time in problematic social media use and mental health outcomes in students. We also investigated whether resilience and loneliness moderated the relationship between social media use and mental health.
Patients and Methods: A total of 103 participants completed a baseline virtual study visit, and 78 participants completed a follow-up visit, 4-weeks later. Participants completed a comprehensive set of questionnaires measuring symptoms of depression and anxiety, perceived stress, loneliness, and resilience.
Results: Our results showed that problematic social media use at baseline was significantly negatively correlated with resilience and positively correlated with all other mental health outcomes. Furthermore, increases in problematic social media use were significantly associated with increased depressive symptoms and loneliness between visits. Resilience significantly moderated the relationship between increased problematic social media use and heightened perceived stress. Poor mental health at baseline did not predict increased problematic social media use over time. Contrarily to problematic use, frequency of social media use was not significantly correlated with any mental health measures at baseline.
Conclusion: This study offers a longitudinal perspective, providing valuable insights into the potential protective role of resilience against the detrimental mental health effects seen with increases in problematic social media use.

Keywords: depression, anxiety, loneliness, stress, resilience, social media


中文翻译：

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学生纵向有问题的社交媒体使用及其与负面心理健康结果的关联

目的：社交媒体已越来越成为我们日常生活的一部分，对塑造个人（尤其是学生）的习惯、社交能力和心理健康具有影响力。这项研究旨在探讨有问题的社交媒体使用随时间的变化与学生心理健康结果之间的关系。我们还调查了韧性和孤独感是否调节了社交媒体使用与心理健康之间的关系。
患者和方法：共有 103 名参与者完成了基线虚拟研究访问，78 名参与者在 4 周后完成了随访访问。参与者完成了一套全面的调查问卷，测量抑郁和焦虑的症状、感知压力、孤独感和复原力。
结果：我们的结果表明，基线时有问题的社交媒体使用与心理弹性显着负相关，与所有其他心理健康结果正相关。此外，有问题的社交媒体使用的增加与抑郁症状和访问之间的孤独感增加显着相关。复原力显着调节了有问题的社交媒体使用增加与感知压力增加之间的关系。基线心理健康状况不佳并不能预示随着时间的推移，有问题的社交媒体使用会增加。与有问题的使用相反，社交媒体的使用频率与基线时的任何心理健康指标均没有显着相关。
结论：这项研究提供了纵向视角，为抵御有问题的社交媒体使用增加所带来的有害心理健康影响的潜在保护作用提供了宝贵的见解。

关键词：抑郁、焦虑、孤独、压力、复原力、社交媒体