ArticleThe Psychiatric quarterly2025
Doomscrolling and Secondary Traumatic Stress: Psychological Distress and Just World Belief as Potential Mediating Pathways.
Article in The Psychiatric quarterly, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Doomscrolling, mental health, and psychological well-being in adolescents and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Doomscrolling: Its Relationships with Fear of Missing Out, Netlessphobia, Internet Addiction, and Psychological Distress in University Students.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Article
- Validation and Polish Adaptation of the Doomscrolling Scale.Chronic stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Doomscrolling, the repetitive consumption of distressing online content, has been linked to heightened emotional strain, yet the psychological processes that may underlie its association with trauma-like outcomes remain less understood. This study examined whether psychological distress and general belief in a just world (GBJW) function as intermediary mechanisms in the association between doomscrolling and secondary traumatic stress symptoms associated with social media exposure (STS-SM). A cross-sectional sample of 235 adults in Singapore completed validated self-report measures assessing doomscrolling behavior, psychological distress, GBJW, and STS-SM. Regression-based mediation analyses indicated that psychological distress was associated with the link between doomscrolling and STS-SM, with indirect pathways observed across depression, anxiety, and stress subdomains. GBJW did not emerge as an independent mediator. However, a sequential pathway was observed: higher levels of doomscrolling were related to greater psychological distress, which was in turn was linked to variations in GBJW, and subsequently to STS-SM. These findings suggest that psychological distress may represent a proximal emotional process, whereas GBJW may function as a conditional cognitive resource mobilized in response to heightened strain. While the cross-sectional design precludes causal inference, the results highlight potential affective and cognitive pathways through which doomscrolling may be linked with trauma-like responses. Future longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to further clarify these mechanisms and to inform strategies for supporting psychological well-being in digitally saturated contexts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41174332What OpenQuestion holds
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.