ArticleAmerican journal of preventive medicine2020
Associations Between Media Exposure and Mental Distress Among U.S. Adults at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in American journal of preventive medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 144 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Mental health risks of pandemic-related media communication: The mediating roles of distinct types of perceived threat.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2025Article
- Viral Transmission? A Longitudinal Study of Media Use and Its Relation to Mental Strain During the First 2 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Observational
- Doomscrolling: Prospective associations between daily COVID news exposure, internalizing symptoms, and substance use among sexual and gender minority individuals assigned female at birth.Psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity · 2024Article
- Mixed-methods study of university students' perceptions of COVID-19 and media consumption from March 2020 -April 2022.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Support for a right-wing populist party and subjective well-being: Experimental and survey evidence from Germany.PloS one · 2024Article
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- Article
- Association Between the Time Spent on and Sources of the News of Russo-Ukrainian War and Psychological Distress Among Individuals in Poland and Ukraine: The Mediating Effect of Rumination.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- 'I cannot see ahead': psychological distress, doomscrolling and dark future among adult survivors following MBMC public health · 2023Article
- Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on prenatal and postpartum patient experiences and well-being.Birth (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2023Article
- Anti-stigma narratives and emotional comfort against health crisis: a context analysis of UGC short videos from patients with COVID-19 infections.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- How changing needs change technological practices during a crisis: An explanation using practice theory.Computers in human behavior · 2023Article
- 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
- Individualism, economic development, and democracy as determinants of COVID-19 risk information on 132 government websites.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Level of Anxiety and Depression in Caregivers of Children Benefiting from Neurorehabilitation Services.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Mechanisms of Physical Exercise Effects on Anxiety in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Lockdown: An Analysis of the Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience and the Moderating Role of Media Exposure.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Child, parent, and family mental health and functioning in Australia during COVID-19: comparison to pre-pandemic data.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2023Article
- News media exposure and life satisfaction in the COVID-19 pandemic: a moderated mediation model of COVID-19 fear and worries and gender.Current issues in personality psychology · 2023Article
- Buffering the effects of bad news: Exposure to others' kindness alleviates the aversive effects of viewing others' acts of immorality.PloS one · 2023Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionExposure to disaster-related media may be a risk factor for mental distress, but this has not been examined in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assesses whether exposure to social and traditional media during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with mental distress among U.S. adults.
methodsData came from the Understanding America Study, conducted with a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of adults who completed surveys online. Participants included 6,329 adults surveyed between March 10 and March 31, 2020. Regression analyses examined the associations of (1) self-reported average time spent on social media in a day (hours) and (2) number of traditional media sources (radio, TV, and newspaper) consulted to learn about COVID-19 with self-reported mental distress (4-item Patient Health Questionnaire). Data were analyzed in April 2020.
resultsParticipants responding at later survey dates reported more time spent on social media (β=0.02, 95% CI=0.01, 0.03), a greater number of traditional media sources consulted to learn about COVID-19 (β=0.01, 95% CI=0.01, 0.02), and greater mental distress (β=0.07, 95% CI=0.04, 0.09). Increased time spent on social media and consulting a greater number of traditional media sources to learn about COVID-19 were independently associated with increased mental distress, even after adjusting for potential confounders (social media: β=0.14, 95% CI=0.05, 0.23; traditional media: β=0.14, 95% CI=0.08, 0.20).
conclusionsExposure to a greater number of traditional media sources and more hours on social media was modestly associated with mental distress during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.