Open AccessDoomscrolling during COVID-19: The negative association between daily social and traditional media consumption and mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author(s) -
Matthew Price,
Alison C. Legrand,
Zoe M. F. Brier,
Katherine van Stolk-Cooke,
Kelly R. Peck,
Peter Sheridan Dodds,
Christopher M. Danforth,
Zachary W. Adams
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
psychological trauma
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.059
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1942-9681
pISSN - 1942-969X
DOI - 10.1037/tra0001202
Subject(s) - psychopathology , psycinfo , mental health , psychology , pandemic , social media , depression (economics) , multilevel model , covid-19 , media consumption , association (psychology) , consumption (sociology) , psychiatry , clinical psychology , medicine , medline , advertising , disease , psychotherapist , social science , law , sociology , political science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , business , macroeconomics , pathology , computer science , machine learning , economics
Consumption of traditional and social media markedly increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as new information about the virus and safety guidelines evolved. Much of the information concerned restrictions on daily living activities and the risk posed by the virus. The term doomscrolling is used to describe the phenomenon of elevated negative affect after viewing pandemic-related media. The magnitude and duration of this effect, however, is unclear. Furthermore, the effect of doomscrolling likely varies based on prior vulnerabilities for psychopathology, such as a history of childhood maltreatment. It was hypothesized that social and traditional media exposure were related to an increase in depression and PTSD and that this increase was moderated by childhood maltreatment severity.