ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2022
Loneliness and psychological distress before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Relationships with social media identity bubbles.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use: A bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring Harassment Directed Towards Employees on Social Media: A Scoping Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Loneliness, affectivity and psychological distress in people living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cluster analysis.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2026Article
- Remote work frequency and loneliness among United Kingdom employees: the moderating role of active and passive social media use.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Psychometric Properties of the Identity Bubble Reinforcement Scale (IBRS) in a Sample of Chilean Adolescent Students.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Post-pandemic mental health: Understanding the global psychological burden and charting future research priorities.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- A randomized controlled trial of mobile intervention using health support bubbles to prevent social frailty.NPJ digital medicine · 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
- Effects of COVID-19 related social media use on well-being.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Moderated Mediating Effects of Social Media Identity and Loneliness on the Relationship Between Problematic Internet Use and Mental Health in China: Nationwide Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Personal, community, and societal factors associated with mukbang viewing among adolescents: findings from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey.Epidemiology and health · 2025Article
- From perceived threat to coping strategies: exploring the role of social media and its impact on loneliness and anxiety during the COVID-19 quarantine.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Delayed Access to Medical Care and Psychological Distress among Chinese Immigrants in Canada during the Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Online communities come with real-world consequences for individuals and societies.Communications psychology · 2024Review
- Pandemic Loneliness in Healthcare Workers. Does It Predict Later Psychological Distress?Psychological reports · 2024Article
- How Mental Health and Suicidality Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in the General and Psychiatric Population Illustrating Risk and Protective Factors.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Role of Social Media in the Experiences of COVID-19 Among Long-Hauler Women: Qualitative Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Psychological dynamics of pandemic resilience: a tale of two cultures.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Article
- Starting an undergraduate degree amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-method egocentric network study on student loneliness.PloS one · 2024Article
- Loot box purchasing and indebtedness: The role of psychosocial factors and problem gambling.Addictive behaviors reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being and mental health are a concern worldwide. This article is based on two longitudinal studies that investigated the role of social media use in loneliness and psychological distress before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 utilized nationally representative 3-point longitudinal data (n = 735) collected in 2017-2020 on the Finnish population. Study 2 utilized 5-point longitudinal data (n = 840) collected in 2019-2021 representing the Finnish working population. We analyzed the data using multilevel mixed-effects regression analysis. A longitudinal analysis of Study 1 showed that perceived loneliness did not increase among the Finnish population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stronger involvement in social media identity bubbles predicted lower loneliness during the pandemic. Study 2 results showed that since the outbreak of the pandemic, psychological distress has increased among lonely individuals but not among the general working population. Involvement in social media identity bubbles predicted generally lower psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it did not buffer against higher psychological distress among lonely individuals. The findings suggest that perceived loneliness is a risk factor for prolonged negative mental health effects of the pandemic. Social media identity bubbles can offer meaningful social resources during times of social distancing but cannot protect against higher psychological distress among those who perceive themselves as often lonely.
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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.