Understanding the impact of emotional support on mental health resilience of the community in the social media in Covid-19 pandemic

The relationship between family functioning and social media addiction among university students: a moderated mediation model of depressive symptoms and peer support

BACKGROUND

Social media addiction (SMA) is an increasing problem, especially among young adults. Little is known about university students' SMA and family functioning. This study aimed to explore the mediating effect of depressive symptoms and the moderating effect of peer support in the relationship between family functioning and SMA among young adults.

METHODS

A sample of 1862 Chinese university students completed an online survey including the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Family APGAR, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), peer support, and demographic characteristics. Hierarchical regression and moderated mediation analysis were used to test the effects and pathways among them.

RESULTS

Of the 1840 participants, 30.11% experienced SMA, 38.80% had family dysfunction and 15.98% had depressive symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regression showed better family functioning significantly predicted less SMA (β = -0.26, p < 0.001) and lower depressive symptoms (β = -0.58, p < 0.001), after adjusting for covariates. Mediation analysis verified that depressive symptoms mediated the effect of family functioning on SMA (indirect effect = -0.22, 95%CI[-0.28, -0.17]). Furthermore, the interaction of family functioning and peer support was negatively related to depressive symptoms (β= -0.03, 95% CI[-0.05, -0.01]) and the interaction of depressive symptoms and peer support was positively related to SMA (β = 0.01, 95%CI[0.004, 0.02]). Additional analysis further confirmed that peer support decreased depressive symptoms among young adults from dysfunctional families, and increased SMA behaviors in individuals with depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Better family functioning and lower depressive symptoms may contribute to less social media addiction among Chinese university students. Peer support could moderate the mediating role of depressive symptoms on social media addiction in individuals with family dysfunction.

Understanding University Students' Perspectives towards Digital Tools for Mental Health Support: A Cross-country Study

Background

Organisational and individual barriers often prevent university students from seeking mental health support. Digital technologies are recognised as effective in managing psychological distress and as a source of health-related information, thus representing useful options to address mental health needs in terms of accessibility and cost-effectiveness. However, university students' experiences and perspectives towards such interventions are little known.

Objectives

We thus aimed to expand the existing base of scientific knowledge, focusing on this special population.

Methods

Data were from the qualitative component of "the CAMPUS study", longitudinally assessing the mental health of students at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) and the University of Surrey (UK). We conducted in-depth interviews and thematically analysed the transcripts using the framework approach.

Results

An explanatory model was derived from five themes identified across 33 interviews (15 for Italy, 18 for the UK). Students perceived that social media, apps, and podcasts could deliver relevant mental health content, ranging from primary to tertiary prevention. Wide availability and anonymity were perceived as advantages that make tools suitable for preventive interventions, to reduce mental health stigma, and as an extension of standard treatment. These goals can be hindered by disadvantages, namely lower efficacy compared to face-to-face contact, lack of personalisation, and problematic engagement. Individual and cultural specificities might influence awareness and perspectives on the use of digital technologies for mental health support.

Conclusion

Although considering some specific features, digital tools could be a useful instrument to support the mental health needs of students. Since personal contact remains crucial, digital tools should be integrated with face-to-face interventions through a multi-modal approach.

Health Information Processing and Symptom Management in a Cross-Cultural Setting: Insights from IBD Patients

The affordances of social media, have significantly transformed how patients seek and process health information online, including those with chronic diseases like irritable bowel disease (IBD). Few studies have explored how information processing may impact symptom management. Guided by social cognitive theory, this study investigates how Chinese and U.S. patients (N = 838) process health information in a cross-cultural setting and the impact on symptom management. It finds that efficient information processing improves treatment understanding and symptom management for IBD patients, regardless of their cultural backgrounds. It also reveals a U-shaped quadratic relationship between IBD severity and emotional and peer support, indicating varying support needs at different IBD stages. These findings provide valuable insights for healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers in designing interventions for chronic diseases. The study underscores the importance of recognizing the dynamics of health information processing and the need for a more nuanced approach to patient support and care.

The influence of educational and emotional support on e-learning acceptance: An integration of social support theory and TAM

Flexible education is considered the primary function of e-learning, however, empirical evidence during the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated that students may seek emotional comforts in e-learning to alleviate their negative emotions. This study aims to provide a holistic view of the antecedents of college students' e-learning acceptance by integrating social support theory with the technology acceptance model. Specifically, drawing upon social support theory, this study adopted perceived educational support and perceived emotional support as two driving factors and examined their influences on students' continuous intention in e-learning. The model was empirically validated using survey data from 512 college respondents in China during the first wave of the pandemic. Our results suggested that while perceived educational support exerts a major influence on e-learning acceptance, perceived emotional support also has an important role to play. Besides, the analytics results suggested that the two facets of support had different influencing patterns: perceived educational support has a positive and significant relationship with both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, whereas perceived emotional support solely has a significant relationship with perceived ease of use. Additionally, compared with the prior studies, the effect size ( β ) between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness is larger in the present study (COVID-19 context). These findings stress the need to better understand the mechanism by which social support influences college students' e-learning acceptance and to make use of various kinds of social supports to enhance perceived ease of use (e.g. human-computer interface), promote perceived usefulness, and ultimately motivate more students' continuance intention in e-learning.

The public needs more: The informational and emotional support of public communication amidst the Covid-19 in China

Public communication is critical for responding to disasters. However, most research on public communication is largely focused on its informational support function, overlooking the emotional support that could equally offer. This study takes the lead to investigate their separate impacts. In particular, the variable public engagement, which is a function of the number of Shares, Likes, and Comments in a particular post, is introduced to benchmark the effect of public communication. Besides, considering the evolving nature of the crisis, their dynamic impacts across different COVID-19 pandemic stages are examined. Data from Dec 2019 to Jul 2020 were collected from 17 provincial government-owned social media (Weibo) accounts across COVID-19 in China with a Natural Language Processing-based method to compute the strengths of informational support and emotional support strength. An econometric model is then proposed to explore the impacts of two supports. The findings are twofold: the impact of emotional support on public engagement is empirically confirmed in the study, which is not in lockstep with the informational support; and their impacts on public communication are dynamic rather than static across stages throughout the crisis. We highlighted the importance of emotional support in public engagement by deriving its impact separately from informational support. The findings suggest incorporating both social supports to create stronger public communication tactics during crises.

Exploring the pathway from seeking to sharing social support in e-learning: an investigation based on the norm of reciprocity and expectation confirmation theory

E-learning is increasingly evidenced as a conduit for social support exchange among students and protects them against mental health issues, however, the cognitive process of how social support is exchanged remains unclear. This study uses a cognitive theory approach to achieve a more nuanced explanation of students sharing or giving social support in e-learning. Specifically, we adopted the Norm of Reciprocity and Expectation Confirmation Theory to reveal the interconnection between students' perceived social support and giving social support in learning. The model is empirically validated based on survey data of 512 respondents from college students across China regarding their e-learning experience during the first wave of Covid-19. Our findings suggest that the relationship between perceived social support and giving social support is significant and positive, and this relationship is partially mediated by confirmation of social support. These findings imply that e-learning can foster a self-reliant environment for social support exchange among college students. Under such an environment, students' cognitive process in their seeking and sharing social support is majorly following the norm of reciprocity and secondary expectation confirmation theory.