Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 10, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 9, 2022 - Oct 4, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 21, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Association Between Social Networking Sites Use Intensity and Depression Among Chinese Pregnant Women: Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Though the past years have witnessed debates about the effects of social networking sites (SNS) (including WeChat) use on mental health, the association and mechanisms between social interaction of WeChat use intensity (SIWUI) and Antenatal Depression are unclear.
Objective:
We aimed to test the mediating roles of upward social comparison on social interaction of WeChat (USCW) and rumination in association between SIWUI and Antenatal Depression.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four hospitals with the self-reported measures of SIWUI, USCW, rumination, Antenatal Depression and control variables. The mediation analysis was investigated through Model 6 from the PROCESS macro 4.0 in SPSS 26 (IBM Corp).
Results:
Results from 2, 661 participants showed Antenatal Depression was unrelated to SIWUI (P=.54), but positively related to attitude to social interaction of WeChat use with statistical significance (P=.01). The direct effect of attitude to social interaction of WeChat use on Antenatal Depression was not statistically significant (β=-.03, P=.05). The results supported the indirect relationship between attitude to social interaction of WeChat use and Antenatal Depression via (1) USCW (indirect effect value=0.04, 95%CI 0.03-0.06); (2) rumination (indirect effect value=-0.02, 95%CI -0.04 to -0.01); (3) USCW and rumination in sequence (indirect effect value=0.07, 95%CI 0.06-0.08).
Conclusions:
Our findings highlight the necessity of focusing on attitude to SNS use, and the importance of upward social comparison and rumination in understanding the effect of SNS use on Antenatal Depression.
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