The COVID-19 pandemic: Electronic media use and health among US College students

Abstract

Objective: To explore differences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in electronic media use (i.e. TV watching, social media use, screen time), health (i.e. physical, behavioral, social, mental), and the relationship between them among college students. Participants: Nine hundred sixty-five United States college students with 367 participating before and 598 during the pandemic (after March 2020). Methods: Using a multiple cross-sectional design, participants completed an online self-report questionnaire and biometric data was gathered in-person for the Pre-COVID group. Results: During the pandemic, time spent watching TV and social media was 14% higher and total screen time was 30% higher (d = .39). Health variations were mixed with both adverse and beneficial differences. Most correlations between electronic media use and health variables were lower in strength during the pandemic. Conclusions: Differences between electronic media use and health before and during the pandemic suggest potential mixed effects of the pandemic on college student media use and health.

Keywords:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• health
• screen time
• social media
• TV

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank (in alphabetical order) Hannah Braithwaite, Samuel Clay, Britt Lloyd, Devon Marrott, Lori Spruance, and Mitch Vaterlaus for their assistance throughout the conduction of this study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Brigham Young University - Idaho.

Data availability

The data used to support the findings of the current study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by internal funding from Brigham Young University-Idaho for student- and faculty-directed research.