Physical Distancing and Social Media Use in Emerging Adults and Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Large-scale Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Survey Study.
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Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date
2022-08-11
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Title
Physical Distancing and Social Media Use in Emerging Adults and Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Large-scale Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Survey Study.
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Published in
JMIR infodemiology 2022;2(2):e33713
Abstract
Emerging adults reported fewer physical distancing behaviors than adults (β=-.08, t86,213.83=-26.79; P<.001). Moreover, emerging adults were more likely to use social media for COVID-19 news and information (b=2.48; odds ratio 11.93 [95% CI=9.72-14.65]; SE 0.11; Wald=23.66; P<.001), which mediated the association with physical distancing but only to a small extent (indirect effect: b=-0.03, 95% CI -0.04 to -0.02). Contrary to our hypothesis, the longitudinal random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed no evidence that physical distancing was not influenced by social media use in the previous wave. However, evidence indicated that social media use affects subsequent physical distancing behavior. Moreover, additional analyses showed that the use of most social media platforms (ie, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) and interpersonal communication were negatively associated with physical distancing, whereas other platforms (ie, LinkedIn and Twitter) and government messages had no or small positive associations with physical distancing.