Problematic social media use and intensive social media use among academic students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Associations with social support and life satisfaction

Abstract
The need for interaction that arose given the social distancing imposed on people by governments during the COVID-19 has increased the use of social media (SM). The current study distinguishes between two different patterns of SM use: problematic and intensive, and examines the impact of each specific type of SM on social and mental aspects (i.e., social support, loneliness, and life satisfaction). The sample included 363 higher education students. Data were gathered during a second lockdown using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling. The model i (Preprint)
Authors: Boniel-Nissim Meyran , Alt Dorit 
Published: February 2022

BACKGROUND

In December 2019, the eruption of the COVID-19 began worldwide. The response to the outbreak of the virus was, among other things, a reduction in mobility, a restriction of multi-participant meetings, and a closure imposed by governments that required people to stay at homes and, therefore, carry out all actions via the internet. Thus, work, learning, leisure, and communication were done almost absolutely online. Consequently, more than half a billion new users joined social media (SM) platforms between 2020 and 2021 (Kemp, 2021). Furthermore, in a study conducted during the pandemic’s early stages, high SM usage levels were reported among the overall population (Geçer et al., 2020).
SM use in times of health crisis, as in the current pandemic, can be highly intensive. Previous findings suggested that stressful life events were associated with problematic internet use (Zheng et al., 2022). On the other hand, the easiness of accessing information and sharing it with others and the sense of social cohesion and social support drew people to stay connected through SM (Arslan et al., 2021). Previous studies on SM use during the spread of the COVID-19 yielded mixed findings regarding the consequences of their use. Some have shown that using SM has helped individuals find information and gain support (e.g., Saud et al., 2020), while others have associated SM use with loneliness and depression (e.g., Lisitsa et al., 2020). While the previous study demonstrated the association between deferent content exposure through the internet to psychological outcomes (Zhng et al., 2022), the present study seeks to distinguish between two types of SM use: intensive and problematic. We aim to identify the specific implication of each pattern of SM use for individuals’ social and mental well-being during the closure.
Furthermore, in times of crisis, as during the COVID-19 outbreak, life satisfaction, defined as the degree to which a person positively evaluates the overall quality of his/her life as-a-whole (Veenhoven, 1996), can be severely hampered (Zhang et al., 2020). In their study, Lathabhavan and Sudevan (2022) proved to show the association between depression, anxiety and stress on low life satisfaction during two waves of the COVID 19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of findings to point out the factors linked to high life satisfaction in times of crisis.
Moreover, whereas previous studies have underscored the associations between loneliness, social support, and life satisfaction (Kong, & You, 2013), this study addresses familial supportive patterns, an underexplored construct of social support. It attempts at revealing the link between this construct and SM use in times of social distancing during a health crisis. This study may help identify the positive role of SM use during times of crisis and suggest ways to mitigate its negative implications.
Problematic SM use vs Intensive SM use: Implications on social and mental aspects
The definition of problematic SM use is based on the DSM-5 criteria for substance dependence and pathological gambling. Specifically, it refers to the components of relapse, preoccupation, withdrawal, mood modification, tolerance, and external consequences (Petry et al., 2014). There is scientific evidence to significant associations between SM use and decrease in mental health aspects, such as anxiety, depression, stress, low well-being, already before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Błachnio et al., 2016; Hawi & Samaha, 2017; Shakya & Christakis, 2017), and during the outbreak, among young-adults (e.g., Geirdal et al., 2021; Zhao & Zhou, 2020).
It is well documented in the research literature that problematic SM use can deteriorate social relationships. For example, in their longitudinal study, Marttila et al. (2021) found that the problematic use of SM increased loneliness, which lowered life satisfaction over time. In another study (Baltaci, 2019), a significant association was found between problematic, addiction-like SM use, and loneliness, particularly among university students. Finally, a study conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak revealed that younger adults (18-35) were lonelier than older adults and showed a more significant increase in SM use (Lisitsa et al., 2020).
Intensive SM use is characterized by the amount of usage time. While problematic SM use points to compulsive behaviour with harmful consequences for social and mental well-being (Keles et al., 2020), intensive use of SM is not necessarily pathological. The association between intensive SM use and mental health is complex, not linear, and poses mixed implications (Boer et al., 2020; Masur, 2021; Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017). However, according to Boar et al.’s extensive study, users reported higher levels of family support and life satisfaction in countries with a higher prevalence of intense SM use. Moreover, from a social point of view, engagement in SM may facilitate social connectedness (Allen et al., 2014; Radovic et al., 2017). Drawing on the Stimulation Hypothesis, communication through SM leads to more face-to-face interactions because it encourages contact with existing close social circles (Kuntsche et al., 2009; Valkenburg & Peter, 2011).

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to contribute to the corpus of knowledge by presenting the potential effects of different characteristics of SM usages (problematic and intensive) on social and mental well-being. We intended to do so by investigating the following hypotheses: problematic SM use will be negatively linked to social support (H1) and life satisfaction (H2); and positively associated with loneliness (H3). In addition, intensive use of SM will be associated with increased levels of social support (H4), life satisfaction (H5) and decreased levels of loneliness (H6).

METHODS

Sample
The sample included 363 students in various higher education institutions in Israel (Mean age 26.9 SD = 5.55; 67% females), of whom 24% resided in cities while the others reported living in small settlements (e.g., Kibbutz, village). Regarding family status: 55% reported being singles, 26% declared being in relationships without children, 17.5% were married with children, and less than 2% reported being divorced. Regarding ethnicity, 20% were Arab students, and 80% were Jewish students. In addition, 80% were undergraduate students and 20% master’s degree students. Regarding COVID-19-related items, merely 5% were infected by COVID-19 according to their reports, 19% confirmed that one of their family members was infected by COVID-19.
Measurements
Intensive SM use (ISMU) (Mascheroni et al., 2013) comprises four items that measure the frequency of students’ online contact via social media with close friends, friends from a larger friend group, friends whom they met through the internet, and other people. All items are rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1= never/almost never to 5 = almost all the time throughout the day. In line with previous studies, the respondents’ answers were recoded (Boer et al., 2020): those who answered ‘almost all the time throughout the day’ on at least one item were classified as 1= intense user, and the rest were classified as 0=non-intense users.
Problematic SM use (PSMU). Based on the Social Media Disorder Scale (van den Eijnden et al., 2016), the following measure was used to pinpoint the respondents’ displaying signs of PSMU. The scale consists of nine items. On a binary response (yes/no) scale, the respondents indicated whether they experienced symptoms such as “regularly neglecting other activities” during the past six months. Six or more positive answers suggested that the respondent is a problematic user (recorded as 1), others were recorded as 0.
Life satisfaction (Cantril, 1965). This single-item measure assesses participants’ rate of their life satisfaction on a scale ranging from 0 = worst possible life to 10 = best possible life.
Social well-being. Two four-item scales were used based on the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet & Grodaon, 1988) to assess social well-being. The first subscale includes friend support in which participants were asked to rate their agreement with items such as “I can count on my friends when things go wrong” (α = 0.95). The second measured family support, for example, “I can talk about problems with my family” (α = 0.92). All items are rated on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly agree.
Loneliness. This three-item scale (Russell, 1996) measured respondents’ feelings of loneliness during lockdowns. Items such as “I felt lonely” were scored on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 0 = never to 4 = always (α = 0.65).
Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM; Hair, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2017), advised to be applied in cases where theory is less developed, and if the primary objective of using structural equation modelling is a prediction of target constructs.
Procedure
COVID-19 spread in Israel in March 2020, leading to several restrictions and frequent total closures, thrusting the higher education system into e-learning until March 2021. The questionnaires in the present study were distributed to students during October-November 2020 when students could not attend on-campus classes. The questionnaires were circulated through a link in five academic institutions around the country and enabled a voluntary, anonymous response. The College’s Ethics Committee approved the research.

RESULTS

To assess H1 – H6, Model 1 (Figure 1) was constructed. This path model includes seven constructs, represented in the model as cycles: Loneliness, Family Support, Friend Support, Life Satisfaction, Intensive SM use (ISMU), Problematic SM use (PSMU), and Gender (female). It should be noted that all constructs were regressed on all the background variables (detailed in the sample description(, however, only Gender was significantly related to ISMU, therefore was entered into the model. The indicators are the directly measured proxy variables, represented as rectangles. Relationships between the constructs and the constructs and their assigned indicators are shown as arrows. In PLS-SEM, single-headed arrows, as shown between the constructs, are considered predictive relationships, and with solid theoretical support, can be construed as causal relationships. As shown in Figure 1, paths were specified based on the proposed hypotheses.

Figure 1. Model 1. Analysis results of the examination of the research hypotheses by SmartPLS.

Table 1 presents the analysis results of the direct effects. As shown in the table, PSMU was negatively connected to Friend Support, whereas a non-significant result was indicated between PSMU and Family Support; hence H1 was partially corroborated. PSMU was negatively correlated to Life Satisfaction; thus, H2 was confirmed. PSMU was positively related to Loneliness; therefore, H3 was corroborated.
Regarding ISMU, this independent variable was significantly linked only to Family Support. Therefore, H4 was partially corroborated, and hypotheses H5 and H6 were not confirmed. Lastly, females reported using SM more intensively than males.

Table 1. Significance analysis of the direct effects.

Direct Effect t value p value
Family Support -> Life Satisfaction 0.207 3.636 0.000
Friend Support -> Life Satisfaction -0.096 1.569 0.117
Gender (female) -> ISMU 0.182 4.042 0.000
ISMU -> Family Support 0.128 2.551 0.011
ISMU -> Friend Support 0.086 1.571 0.117
ISMU -> Life Satisfaction -0.010 0.203 0.839
ISMU -> Loneliness -0.059 0.998 0.319
Loneliness -> Life Satisfaction -0.361 7.380 0.000
PSMU -> Family Support -0.114 1.797 0.073
PSMU -> Friend Support -0.216 3.829 0.000
PSMU -> Life Satisfaction -0.174 3.316 0.001
PSMU -> Loneliness 0.159 3.175 0.002

Model evaluation
Collinearity was examined by the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) values of all sets of predictor constructs in the structural model. The results showed that the VIF values of all combinations of endogenous and exogenous constructs are below the threshold of 5 (Hair et al., 2017), ranging from 1.000 to 1.620. Hence, collinearity among the predictor constructs is not critical in the following structural model.
We tested the coefficient of determination (R2) value. R2 for Family Support (0.024), Friend Support (0.047), ISMU (0.033), and Loneliness (0.025) were rather weak. However, a relatively higher result was found for Life Satisfaction (0.228). In addition, in order to measure the R2 values, the change in the R2 value when a specified exogenous construct is removed from the model was used to evaluate its impact on the endogenous constructs. This measure is referred to as the f2 effect size when values of 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35, respectively, represent small, medium, and large effects. Low effect size results were found between ISMU and the dependent variables, ranging from 0 to 0.016. f2 results for PSMU and the dependent variables were relatively higher, ranging from 0.013 to 0.047, yet still considered weak. Finally, the path model’s predictive relevance (Q2) was assessed. Values larger than 0 suggest that the model has predictive relevance for a particular endogenous construct (Hair et al., 2017). The highest Q2 value was indicated for Life Satisfaction Q2 = 0.203, whereas somewhat lower values were suggested for Family Support (0.018), Friend Support (0.039), and Loneliness (0.014).

CONCLUSIONS

The COVID-19 outbreak made life chalenging. For higher education students, the absence from campus limited the possibility for social gatherings decreased their sense of belonging and the opportunity to receive support from their classmates (Arslan et al., 2021). As a result, many have overused SM for social and emotional gratifications to fill this void. The present study aimed to examine how different patterns of SM use might be associated with social support and life satisfaction.
As postulated, our results indicated that intensive SM use differs significantly in its implications on mental and social well-being from problematic SM use. Students who were identified as intensive SM users reported receiving support from their families. In this context, it might be inferred that SM acts as a platform for communication with family members. Moreover, since the COVID-19 affected older people more severely (Raifman & Raifman, 2020), it is plausible to assume that young people (namely students in the current research) will tend to contact their families. More so when one of the family members is at risk of being infected (in the present sample, 19% confirmed that one of their family members was infected by COVID-19).
On the other hand, the speculated positive association between intensive SM use and peer support was not corroborated nor hypothesized negative association with loneliness. This can be explained by the fact that only 11% of the students in the sample reported they lived alone during the lockdown. Therefore, it is possible that most of the students had a source of support and togetherness, which eliminated the need to rely solely on SM.
Moreover, the positive association between intensive SM use and life satisfaction was not corroborated. Previous studies stressed the difficulty in confirming this association (Masur, 2021). Therefore, it is plausible to assume, especially in times of health crises, that there might be confounders, such as psychological distress and fear of COVID-19 (e.g., Trzebiński et al., 2020) which are needed to be considered. In addition, as stressed before, it is important to differentiate between passive and active use to understand better the impact of SM use (Masur, 2021). Therefore, future research should investigate how the various levels of activities enabled by SM shape individuals’ life satisfaction.
Regarding problematic SM users, these students felt lonely, got significantly less support from their friends, and reported low life satisfaction. These findings are consistent with previous studies on loneliness, associating this variable with passive SM use, which may, in turn, predict lower social support (Wang et al., 2018). Therefore, it might be concluded that while intensive SM use acts mainly as a tool for social communication, connecting individuals to their family members during times of health crisis, problematic SM use is associated with pathological behaviour (Petry et al., 2014), and therefore was found connected to decreased levels of mental and social aspects.
Limitations
The strength of the current study lies in its rich data collection at the time of closure among a diverse academic student population. However, this study has several limitations we would like to address. First, this study used a convenience sample, and for this reason, despite its sectoral diversity, it does not fully represent the population. Second, the present study addressed the use of SM only, and no other digital applications (such as computer games) that might be perceived as communication conduits were examined. Thus, follow-up studies should explore patterns of additional internet applications usages and their relationship to mental and social well-being.
Conclusions and Practical Implications
A wide range of research indicates that SM use has increased following the physical distancing imposed by governments in response to COVID-19 (Bowden-Green et al., 2021). This study explored the motives for SM use under lockdown conditions and elaborated on previous work by distinguishing between two types of SM users. The first is the intensive user. Such users seek out SM to satisfy their needs for social interaction, specifically with their family, during times of social distancing. Based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory (Katz et al., 1973), it can be assumed that intensive users are aware of their motives, which in this case can be defined as ‘social’ (due to the social distancing) motives that created a need for intensive media use, to satisfy requirements such as belonging or keeping in close touch with family members who might have been at risk of illness. Hence, it seems plausible to assume that the intensive users actively selected SM platforms to satisfy their social interaction needs.
In contrast to intensive SM users, the second type of users, defined as problematic, might have different motives for SM overuse that can be linked to pathological characteristics. Addictive-like behaviour is linked to isolation from society. In this case, SM acts as an escape tool from the world and not a means for social connectedness and social support (Baltaci, 2019). Thus, it might be beneficial for clinicians to identify individuals prone to problematic SM use by probing for underlying mental health difficulties that prompt excessive SM use among individuals. Problematic SM use should be considered a priori, and prevention strategies of dealing with this addictive-like behaviour should be offered more intensively during times of instability and social distancing. These efforts should include raising awareness among young people concerning mental health difficulties and disseminating information regarding available public health resource centres and networks that offer information and practical assistance. Moreover, public health practitioners should consider devising programs aimed at helping problematic SM users to learn coping strategies of dealing with emotional and social difficulties than merely heavily relying on SM.