A longitudinal study of the association between depression, anxiety and stress symptoms of university students in Serbia with excessive social media use before and during COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Besides the well known good side of social media, it cannot be denied some of its negative effects. This two-phase study aimed to find out whether the usage of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic showed some significant association with depression and anxiety symptoms, and levels of stress.

Methods

The study was based on the survey of 1,476 randomly selected students at the initial phase (December 2019 to February 2020), and 1,400 students of the same cohort at the follow up phase (December 2021-February 2022). The collected data included socio-demographics, social media usage aspects, and the ones concerning levels of depression, stress and anxiety symptoms. Standardized questionnaires - the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) was applied to measure

SUBMITTER: Visnjic A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10757958 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature