The importance of trust in the relation between COVID-19 information from social media and well-being among adolescents and young adults

During the COVID-19 pandemic, young people have been exposed to distressing content about COVID-19 without knowing whether they can trust such content. This indicates a need to examine the effects of social media use on mental health and well-being. Existing research provides an inconsistent impression of such effects. Thus, we examined the relation between exposure to COVID-19 information on social media and well-being and assessed if trust in COVID-19 information on social media moderated this relationship. The sample consisted of 168 adolescents and young adults from the U.K. and U.S. (M-age = 17.4 years). Participants completed measures of exposure to, and trust in, COVID-19 information on social media platforms, and measures of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Results revealed a null to positive relation between exposure to COVID-19 information on social media and well-being across measures. However, when trust was added to the models as a moderator, results indicated that, for adolescents with higher levels of trust in COVID-19 information found on social media, the relation between information encountered on social media and well-being was positive. In contrast, for adolescents with lower levels of trust, the association between information encountered on social media and well-being was null or sometimes negative. Given the lack of consensus about the impact of social media use on well-being, these results point to the importance of trust when assessing the relationship between exposure to COVID-19 information and well-being.

Automated summary

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to examine the effects of social media use on the mental health and well-being of young people, who have been exposed to unreliable information. This study found that exposure to COVID-19 information on social media had a null to positive relation with well-being, but when trust in the information was high, the relation became positive. For those with lower trust, the association between exposure to information on social media and well-being was null or negative. These findings emphasize the importance of trust in assessing the impact of COVID-19 information on well-being.