Open AccessThe link between mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of social media
Author(s) -
А Гайдабрус,
Гайдабрус Володимирович
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
psihìatrìâ, nevrologìâ ta medična psihologìâ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2411-166X
pISSN - 2312-5675
DOI - 10.26565/2312-5675-2021-17-02
Subject(s) - mental health , pandemic , anxiety , covid-19 , psychology , social media , test (biology) , psychiatry , period (music) , medicine , political science , disease , paleontology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , biology , physics , acoustics
The world was faced the extensive spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus. The COVID-19 crisis is a crisis of bothphysical and mental health. Proper mental health is crucial to the functioning of society at all times in every country and should be apriority and at the center of response and recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health and well-being - the well-being of societyas a whole - have been severely compromised during the pandemic and are a priority for urgent consideration. In the qarantine period,the social media were important sourses of information. The aim of this study was to fi nd out the relation between social media useand stress together with anxiety during this pandemic of COVID-19. We are looking for trends of social media use and infl uence that onbehavioral and mental disorders. This study was conducted with the help of an online based survey of individuals from a fi rst wave andduring a second wave of pandemic in Ukraine. It was conducted to understand the relationship between social media and stress during theCovid-19 pandemic and to see dynamics of change. A total of 199 participants of the fi rst test period and 152 participants of a second testperiod responded to the survey which was conducted by snowballing sampling techniques in the convenient atmosphere. We applied twovalidated, self-reporting questionnaires namely Perceived Stress Scale and test of Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7.When period of use of social media had increased during the pandemic, it led to an increase in the perception and dissemination offalse information (fakes) that negative aff ected psychological well-being. Negative aspects of the use of social networks can aff ect the levelof anxiety and stress of the population of our country. Among the respondents, 120 (34.2%) think that their mental health and wellbeingwas being deteriorated during this period of pandemic. Total percentage 51.0% of the participants were suff ering from mild anxiety, 11.1%from moderate anxiety and 6.3% from severe anxiety The dissemination of false information in the context of increased search time has allthe prerequisites for increasing the risk of deteriorating mental health in our country during a pandemic.