Problematic social media use and mental health risks among first-year Chinese undergraduates: a three-wave longitudinal study

Introduction The association between social media use and mental health risks has been widely investigated over the past two decades with many cross-sectional studies reporting that problematic social media use (PSMU) is associated with higher mental health risk such as anxiety and depression. The present study examined the relationship between PSMU severity and mental health risks (depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness) using a three-wave longitudinal design. Methods A total of 685 first-year Chinese undergraduate students (Mean age = 19.12 years, SD = 0.92) completed surveys at three times points with intervals of 3 to 4 months. Results revealed that PSMU was positively correlated with all the mental health risk variables over the three time points. Results The prevalence of PSMU increased over the three research waves. Cross-lagged models identified bi-directional relationships between PSMU and mental health risks, while such links were not consistent between different mental health risk variables and can change over different research intervals. Discussion This study indicates that PSMU and mental health risks could predict each other in a vicious loop, but the differences between specific mental health risks and the research context (e.g., different term times and experiences in university) should not be ignored. Further research attention should be paid to the prevalence of PSMU and mental health conditions among Chinese first-year undergraduates who appear to have difficulties in adapting to university life.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Frontiers in Psychiatry

• Publication date

  2023-09-07

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1237924PMID 37743982PMCID 10512716
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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