Does social media usage ameliorate loneliness in rural youth? A cross sectional pilot study

Abstract Aim To investigate the relationship between social media use and loneliness and psychological wellbeing of youth in rural New South Wales. Design This was a web-based cross-sectional survey. Methods The survey consisted of 33 items including demography (12 items), participants’ social media use (9 items), mood and anxiety (6 items), perceived loneliness (6 items), the impact of COVID-19 on social media usage or perceived loneliness (2 items). The participants’ mood and anxiety were evaluated using the psychological distress tool (K6), while loneliness was measured using the De Jong Gierveld 6-item scale. Total loneliness and psychological distress scores were compared between demographic variables. Results A total of 47 participants, aged 16–24 years took part in the study. The majority were women (68%) and many had K6 score that was indicative of psychological distress (68%). About half of the participants indicated that Facebook (FB) was their most used social media platform and two in five participants were on social media within 10 min of waking up each day, about 30% spent more than 20 h per week on social media, and more than two-third sent private messages, images, or videos, multiple times a day. The mean loneliness score was 2.89 (range, 0 to 6), with 0 being ‘not lonely’ and 6 being ‘intense social loneliness’. One-way ANOVA and χ2 test results showed that those who used FB most frequently had significantly higher mean scores for loneliness compared to those that used other social media platforms (p = 0.015). Linear regression analysis revealed that those who commonly used FB were more likely to report higher loneliness scores (coefficient = –1.45, 95%CI –2.63, –0.28, p = 0.017), while gender (p = 0.039), age (p = 0.048), household composition (p = 0.023), and education level (p = 0.014) were associated with severe psychological distress. Conclusions The study found that social media usage, particularly FB, as measured by time used and active or passive engagement with the medium, was significantly linked to loneliness, with some impact on psychological distress. Social media use within ten minutes of waking increased the likelihood of psychological distress. However, neither loneliness nor psychological distress were associated with rurality among the rural youth in this study.摘要 研究目的：探讨新南威尔士州农村地区青少年的社交媒体使用行为与孤独感及心理健康福祉之间的关联。研究设计：本研究为基于网络的横断面调查。研究方法：本次调研共包含33个条目，涵盖人口统计学信息（12项）、受访者社交媒体使用情况（9项）、情绪与焦虑状况（6项）、感知孤独感（6项），以及新冠疫情对社交媒体使用或感知孤独感的影响（2项）。其中，受访者的情绪与焦虑状况采用心理痛苦评估工具（K6，psychological distress tool）进行评估，孤独感则通过De Jong Gierveld 6条目量表（De Jong Gierveld 6-item scale）进行测量。随后对不同人口统计学变量间的总孤独感得分与心理痛苦得分进行了比较分析。研究结果：本研究共纳入47名年龄介于16至24岁的受访者，其中绝大多数为女性（68%），且68%的受访者K6得分提示存在心理痛苦。约半数受访者表示脸书（Facebook，FB）为其最常使用的社交媒体平台；五分之二的受访者会在每日起床后10分钟内登录社交媒体；约30%的受访者每周使用社交媒体时长超过20小时；超过三分之二的受访者每日多次发送私信、图片或视频。受访者的平均孤独感得分为2.89（范围0至6，其中0代表"无孤独感"，6代表"重度社交孤独感"）。单因素方差分析与卡方检验结果显示，与使用其他社交媒体平台的受访者相比，最常使用脸书的受访者孤独感平均得分显著更高（p=0.015）。线性回归分析结果表明，频繁使用脸书的受访者更有可能报告更高的孤独感得分（回归系数=-1.45，95%置信区间：-2.63~-0.28，p=0.017）；而性别（p=0.039）、年龄（p=0.048）、家庭构成（p=0.023）与受教育程度（p=0.014）则与重度心理痛苦存在关联。研究结论：本研究发现，社交媒体使用行为——尤其是脸书——无论从使用时长还是对平台的主动/被动参与程度来看，均与孤独感存在显著关联，并对心理痛苦存在一定影响。起床后10分钟内使用社交媒体会增加出现心理痛苦的概率。然而在本研究的农村青少年群体中，孤独感与心理痛苦均与乡村居住属性无显著关联。