ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2020
What Media Helps, What Media Hurts: A Mixed Methods Survey Study of Coping with COVID-19 Using the Media Repertoire Framework and the Appraisal Theory of Stress.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Media Framing and Portrayals of Ransomware Impacts on Informatics, Employees, and Patients: Systematic Media Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Sleep disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.Sleep medicine reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Telemanagement of Home-Isolated COVID-19 Patients Using Oxygen Therapy With Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation and Physical Therapy Techniques: Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality and reliability of smoking cessation videos on YouTube: a comparative study across three pandemic periods.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Association between the COVID-19 infodemic and depression symptom screening in older adults.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2025Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on referrals among general practitioners and specialists in Shanghai, China.Primary health care research & development · 2024Article
- Comprehensive Review of Chronic Stress Pathways and the Efficacy of Behavioral Stress Reduction Programs (BSRPs) in Managing Diseases.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Exploring How Youth Use TikTok for Mental Health Information in British Columbia: Semistructured Interview Study With Youth.JMIR infodemiology · 2024Article
- News Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media and the Public's Negative Emotions: Computational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- The Role of Social Media in the Experiences of COVID-19 Among Long-Hauler Women: Qualitative Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Article
- Lonely and scrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic: understanding the problematic social media use and mental health link among university students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Exploring the Emotional Pathway from Motivation to Facebook* Addiction in a Vietnamese Undergraduate Sample.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2024Article
- Perceived risk, emotions, and stress in response to COVID-19: The interplay of media use and partisanship.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2023Article
- Information avoidance in the age of COVID-19: A meta-analysis.Information processing & management · 2023Article
- Adapting to Lockdown: Exploring Stress Coping Strategies on Short Video Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Patient experiences with SARS-CoV-2: Associations between patient experience of disease and coping profiles.PloS one · 2023Article
- Social Media Use and Its Association with Mental Health and Internet Addiction among Portuguese Higher Education Students during COVID-19 Confinement.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Factors Influencing Increased Use of Technology to Communicate With Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Web-Based Survey Study.JMIR mental health · 2022Article
- Stress appraisal as a mediator between the sense of coherence and the frequency of stress coping strategies in women and men during COVID-19 lockdown.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2022Article
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Abstract
backgroundSocial and physical distancing in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has made screen-mediated information and communication technologies (media) indispensable. Whether an increase in screen use is a source of or a relief for stress remains to be seen.
objectiveIn the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns, we investigated the relation between subjective stress and changes in the pattern of media use. Based on Lazarus's transactional model of appraisal and coping, and building on an earlier similar survey, we hypothesize that individual differences in the appraisal of media predict variations in approach or avoidance of media for coping with COVID-19 stress.
methodsBetween March 20 and April 20, 2020, a brief snowball survey entitled: "What media helps, what media hurts: coping with COVID19 through screens" was distributed via Concordia University's mailing lists and social media (PERFORM Centre, EngAGE Centre, and Media Health Lab). Using a media repertoire method, we asked questions about preferences, changes in use, and personal appraisal of media experiences (approach, avoid, and ignore) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigated interindividual differences in media use by factors such as subjective stress, age, gender, and self-reported mental health.
resultsMore than 90% of the survey respondents were in Canada and the east coast of the United States. From 685 completed responses, 169 respondents were "very stressed" and 452 were "slightly worried" about the pandemic. COVID-19 stress led to increased use of Facebook (χ
conclusionsThe relationship between appraisal of media's positive and negative facets vary with demographic differences in mental health resiliency. The media repertoire approach is an important tool in studies that focus on assessing the benefits and harms of screen overuse in different populations, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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