Using Social Media for Social Motives Moderates the Relationship between Post-Traumatic Symptoms during a COVID-19-Related Lockdown and Improvement of Distress after Lockdown.

Previous research reported inconsistent results on the relationship between social media (SM) use and psychological well-being, suggesting the importance of assessing possible moderators, e.g., motives for SM use. However, no longitudinal study has yet investigated whether, among people who use SM, specific motives for using SM may represent protective/risk factors for the development of psychological distress, especially after a stressful event. Our longitudinal study aimed at assessing the moderating role of motives for using SM (i.e., coping, conformity, enhancement, social motives) in the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic-related post-traumatic stress symptoms during the lockdown and changes in general distress after lockdown. At Time 1 (during the first lockdown in Italy), 660 participants responded to an online survey, reporting their post-traumatic symptoms, motives for using SM, and general distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms). At Time 2 (three months later, following lockdown), 117 participants volunteered to continue with the follow-up survey assessing general distress symptoms again. Results showed that among those who had experienced more severe post-traumatic symptoms at Time 1, using SM for social motives was associated with more improvement of general distress symptoms. No evidence was found of moderating effects of other motives for SM use. The findings suggest that social connections may have helped to cope with stress during forced confinement, and that SM use may be beneficial for mental health when motivated by maintaining social interactions.

Problematic social media use is statistically predicted by using social media for coping motives and by positive reinforcement processes in individuals with high COVID-19-related stress levels.

It is important to understand the relationship between stress and problematic use of social media (PUSM). However, no study to our knowledge has yet investigated the longitudinal relationship between perceived stress and PUSM via positive and negative reinforcement processes. The present study investigated relationships between COVID-19-pandemic-related stress and PUSM and possible moderating effects of motives for using social media (positive and/or negative reinforcement) during and following a COVID-19-pandemic-related lockdown. Six-hundred-and-sixty participants initially completed a survey including self-report measures of PUSM, COVID-19-pandemic-related stress, and motives for using social media (i.e., for negative reinforcement involving coping and conformity or positive reinforcements involving enhancement and social motives). During the COVID-19 outbreak recovery period, 117 participants again completed the survey. Bayesian analyses revealed that PUSM was associated with higher COVID-19-pandemic-related stress levels and use of social media for coping, conformity, and enhancement purposes. Longitudinally, PUSM symptom worsening was associated with increased use of social media for coping motives regardless of levels of perceived stress. Use of social media for conformity and enhancement purposes moderated relationships between stress levels during lockdown and PUSM symptoms worsening after lockdown. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that negative reinforcement processes may be key factors in PUSM symptom worsening regardless of perceived stress. Concurrently, high levels of stress may worsen PUSM through positive reinforcement processes.

Dealing with uncertainty: A high-density EEG investigation on how intolerance of uncertainty affects emotional predictions.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) can influence emotional predictions, constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prearrange action (implementation stage), and update internal models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). However, neurocomputational mechanisms by which IU affects emotional predictions are unclear. This high-density EEG study investigated if IU predicted event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain sources activity developing along the stages of emotional predictions, as a function of contextual uncertainty. Thirty-six undergraduates underwent a S1-S2 paradigm, with emotional faces and pictures as S1s and S2s, respectively. Contextual uncertainty was manipulated across three blocks, each with 100%, 75%, or 50% S1-S2 emotional congruency. ERPs, brain sources and their relationship with IU scores were analyzed for each stage. IU did not affect prediction generation. During prediction implementation, higher IU predicted larger Contingent Negative Variation in the 75% block, and lower left anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area activations. During prediction updating, as IU increased P2 to positive S2s decreased, along with P2 and Late Positive Potential in the 75% block, and right orbito-frontal cortex activity to emotional S2s. IU was therefore associated with altered uncertainty assessment and heightened attention deployment during implementation, and to uncertainty avoidance, reduced attention to safety cues and disrupted access to emotion regulation strategies during prediction updating.