Table 6.
Description of results.
| ID | Author and Year | Brief description of results |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arend et al. (37) | Results showed that participants reported increased screen use during leisure time, mostly social media and television watching, followed by news consumption, other internet usage, and gaming. Experienced work confinements were positively associated with social media usage. Further, work confinements were positively associated with gaming in males and with news consumption, especially in individuals living alone. Social confinements were positively associated with watching television especially in younger participants and with social media consumption in younger participants. Higher experienced day structure was related to less television watching, gaming, and internet surfing but more news consumption. |
| 2 | Ellis et al. (40) | Frequency of social media use increased during the pandemic and physical activity decreased. Social media use increased, with 48% of participants using social media for more than 5 hours. Although social media use is nearly universal among youth (95% of teens reported at least 30 min per day), results showed a substantial increase in the time spent using a variety of social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok,) during the initial call to stay at home. Shockingly, over 12% of adolescents reported using social media more than 10 hrs a day. Analyses showed virtual time with friends related to higher depression but lower loneliness, beyond reported COVID-19 stress. |
| 3 | Li et al. (41) | Most youth reported: worsening family stress, decreased/maintained physical activity, higher technology use. 93% say they have some level of worry about the future and 40.1% show clinical symptoms of illness anxiety. Participants with previously diagnosed anxiety or depression showed lower levels of physical activity, higher technology use, worse sleep quality, higher levels of loneliness and uncertainty, lower levels of psychological stress, lower levels of mental well-being, and anxiety about health. Use of technology to feel with other people is associated with better overall well-being and lower levels of loneliness. |
| 4 | Liu et al. (42) | The results indicate that the perceived COVID-19 information overload on social media increased social media fatigue and fear of COVID-19.The enormous amounts of complex information related to COVID-19 exceeded the information-processing capacity of the members of Gen Z and further hindered their ability to develop an unbiased assessment of COVID-19, which led to a higher level of fear of the coronavirus pandemic. Results suggest that fear of missing out acts as a moderator that weakens the associations between the inner psychological states of Gen Z social media users (i.e., social media fatigue and fear of COVID-19) and their social media discontinuance intention. Users who are high in FoMO tend to derive more benefits from social media use, particularly during the time of lockdown. |
| 5 | Zhao et al. (43) | The results showed that COVID-19 stress was positively associated with tendencies toward addictive SMU. Path analyses revealed that this relationship was significantly serially mediated by active use and social media flow, with SMU time being controlled. Our findings suggest that individuals who experience more COVID-19 stress are at increased risk of addictive SMU that may be fostered by active use and flow experience. Therefore, the significant indirect path from COVID-19 stress to addictive SMU via active use implies that excessive active use acts as a maladaptive coping strategy in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. |
| 6 | Arslan et al. (44) | Higher experience of coronavirus anxiety was associated with lower college belongingness and higher psychological adjustment problems. Adjustment via college belongingness only occurred when social media addiction was low and moderate. Unsurprisingly, the moderating effect of social media addiction did not occur when it was high. When they are highly engaged in social media, they may find an opportunity to meet their sense of belongingness with their peers in the virtual environment. |
| 7 | Zhen et al. (45) | The results demonstrated a complicated relationship between online self-disclosure and perceived stress. Specifically, we found a positive relationship between the levels of disclosing oneself to a small group of people and the levels of perceived stress. This positive relationship potentially indicates that college students are more likely to turn to their online friends through social media channels during stressful times. We also found that the willingness to disclose personal information to a selected group of people on social media moderates the negative impact of life disruptions such as schedule changes, moving, and selfisolating. However, the results did not show that peripheral selfdisclosure, such as updating SNS casually, helps relieve the stress. |
| 8 | Dong et al. (46) | In the present study, 2.68% and 33.37% of the participants were classified as addicted and possibly addicted to the Internet. The results also showed that IA grew with age. This study discovered that the frequency and duration of recreational electronic devices use, the frequency of electronic devices use after midnight, and the self-score of addiction to electronic products were all significantly higher than those before the epidemic in all the groups. Our data showed that a number of participants experienced significant depression, anxiety, and stress during the outbreak. In this particular period, due to the suspension of schools, the closure of living environments, the reduction of outdoor activities, and the increase of epidemic pressure, the mental health of school-age children and adolescents were threatened. |
| 9 | Vall-Roqué et al. (47) | The frequency of use of Instagram was positively associated with body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness and low self-esteem. However, effect sizes were very small, hence these results should be interpreted with caution. Following appearance-focused accounts on Instagram was found to be associated with drive for thinness in both age groups, and the effect size in this case was stronger, even though still small. Taking into consideration the lockdown's associated changes in SNS use stated above, these results might have significant implications, as they might indicate that the detrimental effects of SNS could have been exacerbated during the pandemic, and COVID-19 might be linked to increased drive for thinness and risk for eating disorder behaviors relative to media effects. |
| 10 | Sheoran et al. (48) | The total number of uncontrolled users of internet (moderately and severely addicted combined) constitute about two thirds (66.7%) of the sample population. There were, however, no significant gender differences in Internet Addiction among the male and female adolescents. In case of Psychological Distress, more than one third of the sample population (35.3%), was in moderate range and another 36.3 % population was found to be in the severe range. The female adolescents seem to be at a higher risk of Psychological Distress as compared to male adolescents though the differences with respect to gender are not statistically significant. The current study established significant positive correlation between Psychological Distress and Internet Addiction among adolescents. |
| 11 | Hong et al. (49) | EMS and covid info do not directly predict psychological distress. When college students read massive amounts of stressful news from various media platforms (e.g., WeChat), increased perceptions of COVID-19 as a severe health threat may lead to fear, anxiety, and depression. Thus, college students who are frequently exposed to COVID-19 information on social media are likely to report increased levels of anxiety and depression. Second, SME was positively associated with rumination, which in turn was positively associated with psychological distress in these college students, supporting the integrated model of ruminative response style. During this pandemic, exposure to COVID-19 information serves as a stressor, which may activate cognitive processes and increase ruminative thoughts. Mindfulness significantly moderated the first stage of the mediating process in these college students. Specifically, SME was positively associated with rumination among students who reported low levels of mindfulness, whereas this association was not significant among students who reported high levels of mindfulness. |
| 12 | Magson et al. (38) | The pre-pandemic to intra-pandemic increase in depressive symptoms and anxiety, and decrease in life satisfaction. The finding that girls are experiencing greater declines in mental health than boys during the COVID-19 crisis. The present results also showed that feeling socially disconnected during the pandemic was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and lower levels of life satisfaction. |
| 13 | Li et al. (50) | Acute stress levels decreased over time while levels of possible depression and anxiety significantly increased. During second survey fewer participants said they use social media often and worry about their family or that they might get sick. Probability of developing symptoms related to acute stress increased in students with higher levels of depression and anxiety during initial spread of covid, higher exposure to social media, and anxiety about getting sick from covid. |
| 14 | Chambonniere et al. (51) | 68.9% of adolescents reported an increased screen time. A higher proportion of children and adolescents who complied with the recommendations before lockdown reported an increase in their screen time (65.0% and 78.7% respectively) compared to those who exceeded the 2h/day of screen time before the lockdown (respectively 47.8% and 64.8%). A higher proportion of adolescents who had a sitting time > 6h/day before the lockdown declared an increase of their screen time during lockdown (70.3%) compared to those who showed a sitting time <6h/day before the lockdown (57.6%) (p < 0.001). All declared an increase in their screen time during the lock- down but the higher proportion of children and adolescents who lived in urban areas reported an increase in their time spent in front of screen (respectively 66.4% and 70.6%) compared 56.7% and 67.4% of those who lived in the countryside respectively. Higher proportions of children and adolescents who had not access to an outdoor before the lockdown admitted to increasing their screen time. A total of 64.2% of initially inactive adolescents before the lockdown reported an increase of their screen time during lockdown against 75.8% of the initially active participants (p < 0.001). |
| 15 | Islam et al. (52) | Problematic Internet use was significantly associated with being younger in age, having a bachelor degree level of education, being unmarried, being a member of a nuclear family, having middle-income socioeconomic status, living in an urban area, being a cigarette smoker, being a heavier sleeper, being physically inactive, not engaging in household chores, and having higher engagement with online activities (e.g., playing video games, social media use, and online recreational activities). |
| 16 | Parker et al. (53) | Among adolescents, just 7% met guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), which was slightly lower than the Australian average of 10% of 15- to 17-year-olds. Using platforms that promote physical activity determined that on average participants who used it added movement recommendations more often. 26.5% (255/963) of adolescents reported using digital platforms for physical activity. Adolescents'MVPA (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.3), MSE (OR 3.1, 95% CI 2.1-4.4), and combined (OR 4.3, 95% CI 2.1-9.0) guideline adherence were also higher among users of digital platforms relative to nonusers. |
| 17 | Dragun et al. (54) | We found no substantial differences in dietary pattern between pre-lockdown and lockdown periods, including the overall Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence. MD adherence was positively correlated with QoL and study time, and negatively with TV and mobile phone use in pre-lockdown period (all p < 0.001). Interestingly, higher MD adherence was correlated with less perceived hardship and greater happiness and QoL during lockdown. The most prominent difference in sedentary activity corresponded to the time spent on computer/tablet. This kind of activity was reported to average three hours per day during COVID-19 lockdown, which is two hours more than before due to the online learning (p < 0.001). As many as 78.4% of secondary school students increased their computer time during lockdown period. subjective health rating was negatively correlated with daily sitting time, stress score, and anxiousness, while it showed a positive correlation with the MD adherence, sleep duration, quality of life, happiness and optimism during both study periods. |
| 18 | Fumagalli et al. (36) | Results showed that only social network usage increased in the initial stage of confinement as a function of lockdown initiation. Additionally, social network app usage was associated with increased feelings of loneliness, and this relation was mediated by fear of missing out (FOMO). In contrast, messaging app usage was associated with decreased feelings of loneliness, and was unrelated to FOMO. These results suggest that technology may be useful for mitigating the impact of loneliness during social isolation but that it is necessary to promote usage of messaging and VoIP apps, rather than social networking apps, because they are directly associated with decreases in loneliness without increasing FOMO. |
| 19 | Magis-Weinberg et al. (55) | Positive and negative online experiences were more frequent for older students, and females experienced more negative online experiences than males. Greater positive online experiences related to lower loneliness, with the reverse pattern for negative online experiences. Our results suggest that positive online experiences may mitigate loneliness during physical isolation. Lower loneliness was associated with lower negative experiences and also higher positive experiences. |
| 20 | Rens et al. (56) | The results indicate that about two thirds (65.49%) experienced mental distress. In the multivariable regression model, significant (p < 0.01) predictors of mental distress were female gender (OR = 1.78), low social support (OR = 2.17), loneliness (OR = 5.17), a small (OR = 1.63), or large (OR = 3.08) increase in social media use, a small (OR = 1.63) or large (OR = 2.17) decrease in going out for drinks or food, and a decrease in doing home activities (OR = 2.72). |
| 21 | Xiao et al. (57) | Physical activity, particularly of at least 150 minutes' duration each week, significantly decreased the likelihood of negative mood among adolescents during lockdown. Screen time, specifically other than that spent on online study, had a negative association with mood, after controlling for the relevant variables (i.e., physical activity and body mass index). Less screen time and accumulating 150 minutes of physical activity were associated with fewer conflicts with parents. An additional 1 hour of screen time that was not online study was associated with an increase of 1.6 to 1.8 points in participants' mood disturbance scores. |
| 22 | Nomura et al. (58) | Multivariable logistic regression analyses showed that risk factors for depression included being a woman, smoking, alcohol consumption, and social network communication using either video or voice. For suicide-related ideation, alcohol consumption was the only risk factor. Exercise and having someone to consult about worries were associated with decreased risk of both depressive symptoms and suicide-related ideation. Conclusions: Negative lifestyles of smoking and drinking, and being a woman, may be important risk factors for depressive symptoms, whereas exercise and having someone to consult about worries may be protective factors. |
| 23 | Hudimova et al. (59) | The study proves that young people spend almost all day online due to the obsessive pattern of social media involvement and/or procrastination, which often provokes withdrawal syndrome upon the attempt to distract from them. The lack of controlled time spending on social media during self-isolation provokes an exacerbation of anxiety, apathy, depressed mood, and a sense of isolation from social reality. |
| 24 | Cauberghe et al. (60) | Participants who were feeling lonely were more inclined to use social media to cope with lacking social contact. However, this coping strategy was not significantly related to their happiness feelings. Humorous coping was positively related with feelings of happiness, but not influenced by loneliness or anxiety. An analysis of the indirect effects showed that the effect of anxiety on happiness is positively mediated by social media (active) coping. A higher feeling of loneliness among the participants predicted social media use to keep in touch with peers and family, but it was not associated with happiness. Anxious participants indicated to use social media more often to actively seek for a manner to adapt to the current situation, and to a lesser extent as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. The indirect effect of anxiety on happiness through active coping was significantly positive |
| 25 | Pigaiani et al. (61) | When assessing the impact of adolescents' lifestyle behaviors and coping strategies on their psychological wellbeing, a number of variables predicted a significant change. “Active” and planning” adaptive coping strategies associated with a significant change in wellbeing included doing physical activity and engaging in different activities than before, including media use. |
| 26 | Islam et al. (52) | Problematic social media sue (PSMU) was positively associated with irregular physical exercise, poor engagement with academic studies, social media use, watching television, ignoring earning activities, anxiety, and depression. Similarly, PSMU was positively associated with lower age, poor sleep, alcohol consumption, social media use, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, according to the hierarchical regression analyses conducted, individuals with irregular physical activity were found to exhibit higher levels of PSPU than physically active individuals. The present study found that PSPU was significantly associated with poor study engagement. Moreover, the results of this study found that depression, and anxiety were positively associated with PSPU. In the hierarchical regression analysis conducted, reporting with less sleep (<7 h/day) were more prone to PSMU. Another important finding was that alcohol consumption and PSMU were positively associated. |
| 27 | Chen et al. (62) | In the present study, the problematic use of gaming, social media, and smartphones showed mediating effects in the associations between psychological distress (including depression, anxiety, and stress) and screen time use among Chinese primary schoolchildren during their school hiatus due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the fear of being infected by COVID-19 did not impact on any noticeable changes concerning increased time or problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic smartphone use given the weak significant correlations with small effect sizes. In contrast, children who increased their time reading/studying or exercising showed less problematic use of Internet-related activities and less psychological distress during school hiatus. |
| 28 | Fung et al. (63) | We found that problematic smartphone use (PSU) was significantly higher during the COVID- 19 outbreak, However, there was no significant difference in PSMU across the three waves. we found positive associations between PSU/PSMU and psychological distress. However, their associations changed direction across the three waves. Specifically, the association between PSU and depression/anxiety decreased from before, during, to post-lockdown; however, association between PSMU and depression/anxiety increased from before, during, to post-lockdown. The diminished associations between PSU and depression/anxiety may be due to the recently designed mental health apps. Although we did not ask whether our participants used such apps, it could be possible that participants used apps to cope with their depression and anxiety. The exacerbated associations between PSMU and depression/anxiety may be due to the rumors and frightening news or information on COVID-19 in the social media. |
| 29 | Hayran et al. (64) | With two studies conducted at the beginning and towards the end of the pandemic, we tried to uncover the triggers and the accompanying well-being effects of university students' FOMO experiences resulting from this digital overuse. Our results reveal that during the pandemic, even when socially distancing at home, individuals continued to experience FOMO. During this time, there has been a major shift in the type and amount of digital information individuals consumed. Our findings show that FOMO has been commonly experienced due to the difficulty of catching up with real-time social media content, others' posts and videos, newly released movies and series on videostreaming platforms such asNetflix, and virtual gatheringswith family and friends. Especially individuals who are more prone to FOMO as a personality characteristic reported feeling it more intensely about digital content. We find that like a vicious cycle, higher involvement in virtual activities feeds into experiencing higher levels of FOMO, which then leads to increased engagement with social media. |
| 30 | Siste et al. (65) | This study observed a point prevalence of 19.3% for suspected Internet addiction among Indonesian adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak. Our findings showed that internalization and externalization problems were correlated to higher KDAI scores. This finding corresponded with other studies about this issue on adolescents |