The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), popularly known as COVID-19, is a highly infectious virus discovered in China, Wuhan in the later part of 2019. It was highly transmissible across the globe and officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March, 11, 2020 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). Research indicates that COVID-19 spreads rapidly through physical and social contact with others who may have contracted the disease (WHO, 2021). Around the world, COVID-19 has been found to have an enormous negative impact on various well-being indicators including mental health (e.g., Asmundson & Taylor, 2020; Bonsaksen et al., 2021; Hammad & Algarni, 2021; Neil et al., 2021; Oti-Boadi et al., 2021; Rogowska et al., 2020; Stroud & Gutman, 2021; Yip & Chau, 2020). For instance, fear associated with COVID-19 propels people to be anxious in protecting themselves and their loved ones, which can lead to social isolation, fear, and panic (Yip & Chau, 2020). A recent study by Oti-Boadi et al. (2021) found that Ghanaian students experienced normal to mild levels of psychological distress but reported above average scores on fear of coronavirus. In addition, a longitudinal study among youth in the United Kingdom showed an increase in mental health challenges (including increased use of maladaptive coping strategies and decreased physical activity) during the COVID-19 outbreak, especially among females and those with preexisting condition, among other findings (Stroud & Gutman, 2021).
Social media use during the pandemic
Almost all countries around the globe introduced social restrictive measures including quarantine and social distancing to stall the spread of the disease (Lin et al., 2020). These measures, largely affected economic, social, and physical activities and further had a negative toll on the social, emotional and physical well-being of people all over the world (Henssler et al, 2021; Yip & Chau, 2020). The restrictive measures prevented residents from going outside of their homes and engaging in interpersonal activities and communication (Yip & Chau, 2020). A significant number of the world’s population, including students were limited to activities they could do socially, thus limited to what they could do in their homes (Romero-Blanco et al., 2020). Just as mainstream media and alternative media (e.g., social media) contribute significantly to information flow about all issues and crises, the media was key in keeping people informed about the pandemic right from the outbreak. The media consistently provided information on the virus, its spread, measures of government, recommendations of the public health agencies, or the economic and consequences of the various activities around the globe (Anwar et al., 2020; Li et al., 2021). Social media platforms (i.e., WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), in particular, proved vital to sharing information on the virus and its transmission, people’s experiences, and all other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic (Wheaton et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021). Similarly in Ghana, the 83.9% and 71% people described as active WhatsApp and Facebook users as of the third quarter of 2020, respectively, certainly relied on these platforms for their information about the virus (Sasu, 2020; Tabong & Segtub, 2021).
Health impact of social media use
Research has established a relationship between active or high social media use and psychological well-being, as it has been found to reduce loneliness, increase life satisfaction and provide a sense of belonging to users (McLaughlin & Sillence, 2018; Pennington, 2021; Radwan et al., 2020; Zhan et al., 2016). On the other hand, social media could also be disastrous to the lives of people in the sense that excessive use has been linked to grave mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and poor sleep (Alonzo et al., 2020; Islam et al., 2020; Majeed et al., 2020; Rasmussen et al., 2020). According to Gao et al. (2020), the panic being spread about COVID-19 through sensational stories and misinformation by social media and other digital platforms potentially increased stress and anxiety in people. Generally, studies are showing that information received from social media were likely to cause distress in a significant proportion of the global population (Islam et al., 2020; Majeed et al., 2020; Wheaton et al., 2021; Gao et al., 2020). Students form a greater part of the population that rely on social media for information, and this was greatly increased during the peak of the pandemic (Boursier et al., 2020).
Online-learning and students’ social media use
The COVID-19 pandemic also gravely affected the education sector globally where students had to stay at home due to closures of various educational institutions. Students mostly relied on online classes to continue their academic work and served as a basic means of maintaining the social connection between students and their colleagues (Petzold et al., 2020). Globally, the introduction of online learning and teaching stimulated the use of internet in virtually all aspects of students’ lives including surfing social media platforms for information on the pandemic (Camargo et al., 2020). Studies are showing that students online learning and adhering to stay home measures got them stressed out due to the uncertain nature of their studies and exams (Durante et al., 2021; Gao et al., 2020). This panicky situation strengthened their reliance on social media for communication including their learning and instructional activities (Lin et al., 2020) and to also deal with the stress and anxiety associated with the quarantine (González-Padilla & Tortolero-Blanco, 2020). Although, internet connectivity and the use of social media is limited in Low and Lower-middle income countries, research is showing that students relied on the internet and the various social platforms for their academic work, learning about COVID-19, and interpersonal communication (e.g., Almahasees et al., 2021). Some studies in high-income-countries are showing that social media use has contributed significantly to fear of contracting COVID-19 (e.g., Bendau et al., 2021; Wheaton et al., 2021), however, much examination of this pattern has not been done in low-income countries. Existing research, however, is showing psychological distress among students in recent times to be associated with fear of COVID-19 (Oti-Boadi et al., 2021) but none have examined yet a relationship between social media use and fear of COVID-19 among students.
Social media, gender and Fear of COVID-19
The excessive use of social media during the pandemic has been linked with psychological problems. For instance, Majeed et al. (2020) found that increased social media use during the current pandemic was linked to fear of COVID-19 and depression among employees. The situation was not different among students, as increased usage of social media has severe consequences for students’ psychological health (Radwan et al., 2020; Xue et al., 2021). In addition, while reports show associations between higher to excessive use of social media and different behavioral outcomes, there may be differential impacts by gender (Di Crosta et al., 2020; Flesia et al., 2020; Mazza et al., 2020; Xue et al., 2021). For example, Xue et al. (2021) found that male university students used more Social Networking Sites (SNS) and had a higher situational humor response than female university students, while female university students reported a higher fear related to COVID-19 disease.Heffner et al. (2021) also found that variables such as trait anxiety, gender, and social media consumption were the strongest predictors of increasing emotional distress. Further, Hou and colleagues (2021) noted in their study that while females experienced more severe stress and anxiety symptoms, males showed better resilience to stress. Females also spent more time on social media for COVID-19 related information, and experienced more stress. Overall, females report more mental health issues (Di Crosta et al., 2020), greater perceived stress (Flesia et al., 2020), and showed an increase in psychiatric symptoms following the transmission of COVID-19 (Mazza et al., 2020).While highlighting the gender difference in social media usage and psychological distress, Wheaton and colleagues (2021) found in their study that people experienced stressful emotions vicariously as well, where people are able to adopt the emotional reaction of others through social media.
The Current Study
While the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people and countries physically, socially, and psychologically, the effects on student life are equally disturbing (e.g., Di Crosta et al., 2020; Li et al.,2021) as many students have had to stay connected to their academic work, friends, and family through social media. Several studies have also noted that excessive use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed significantly to mental health issues experienced by students as they were exposed to myriad of information and feared stimuli presented on COVID-19 (e.g., Boursier et al., 2020). During the pandemic, males used blogs, media-sharing sites, social questioning and answering and user reviews more frequently than females (Alsharaway et al., 2020; Broche-Pérez et al.,2020), however, females were reported to have more emotional problems associated with social media use than males (Flesia et al., 2020; Radwan et al., 2020). It is therefore inevitable to ignore the gender differences in the use of social media and its potential impact on fear of COVID-19. So far, little is known about the role of gender in understanding the associations between social media and fear of COVID-19. Further, there is a paucity of research on social media and fear of COVID-19 among university students especially in lower middle-income countries where social media usage is on the surge due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We therefore examined the influence of gender in the relationship between social media use and fear of COVID-19 amongst Ghanaian students (as shown in Figure 1). This study has the potential to contribute to better intervention programs for university students.