The mental health impact of daily news exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic: An ecological momentary assessment study

Consumption of distressing news media, which increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, has demonstrable negative effects on mental health. The current study examines the proximal impact of daily exposure to distressing news on mental health. A sample of 128 college students completed daily ecological momentary assessments for 8 weeks measuring exposure to news about COVID-19, worry and optimism specifically related to COVID-19, hopelessness, and general worry. Participants completed >22,700 surveys. Multilevel mediation models indicated that greater daily exposure to news about COVID-19 was associated with higher same-day and next-day worry about the pandemic. Elevations in worry specifically about COVID-19 were in turn associated with greater next-day hopelessness and general worry. Optimism about COVID-19 was not associated with daily exposure to COVID-19 news or to same-day or next-day hopelessness or general worry. This study demonstrates the mental health impact of daily exposure to COVID-19 news and highlights how specific worry contributes over time to hopelessness and general worry.

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Mental Health and Behavior During the Early Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Mobile Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study in College Students (Preprint)

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/20185 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Jeremy F Huckins ◽

Alex W DaSilva ◽

Weichen Wang ◽

Elin Hedlund ◽

Courtney Rogers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

College Students ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Assessment Study ◽

And Behavior ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Mobile Smartphone ◽

Momentary Assessment ◽

Early Phases

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Problematic Internet Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Youth in Outpatient Mental Health Treatment: An App-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

JMIR Mental Health ◽

10.2196/33114 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Meredith Gansner ◽

Melanie Nisenson ◽

Vanessa Lin ◽

Sovannarath Pong ◽

John Torous ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Mental Health Treatment ◽

Internet Use ◽

Problematic Internet Use ◽

Health Treatment ◽

Outpatient Mental Health ◽

Assessment Study ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment

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The Persistence of The Impact of COVID-19 Related Distress, Mood Inertia and Loneliness on Mental Health During a Post-lockdown Phase in Germany: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

JMIR Mental Health ◽

10.2196/29419 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Matthias Haucke ◽

Shuyan Liu ◽

Stephan Heinzel

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Assessment Study ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

The Impact ◽

Momentary Assessment

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Mental Health and Behavior of College Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Longitudinal Mobile Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study- Part II (Preprint)

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/28892 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dante Mack ◽

Alex DaSilva ◽

Courtney Rogers ◽

Elin Hedlund ◽

Eilis Murphy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

College Students ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Assessment Study ◽

And Behavior ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Mobile Smartphone ◽

Momentary Assessment

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Beliefs about emotion shift dynamically alongside momentary affect

10.31234/osf.io/wxfnc ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer Veilleux ◽

Elise Warner ◽

Danielle Baker ◽

Kaitlyn Chamberlain

Keyword(s):

Self Efficacy ◽

Daily Life ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Personality Pathology ◽

Emotional States ◽

Assessment Study ◽

Directed Action ◽

Emotion Beliefs ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment

This study examined if beliefs about emotion change across emotional contexts in daily life, and investigated whether people with prominent features of borderline personality pathology experience greater shifts in emotion beliefs during emotional states compared to people without borderline features. Undergraduate participants with (n = 49) and without borderline features (n = 50) completed a one week ecological momentary assessment study where 7x/day they provided ratings of affect, nine different beliefs about emotion and indicators of momentary self-efficacy. Results indicated a significant between-person element to emotion beliefs, supporting the notion of beliefs as relatively schematic. In addition, people with borderline features generally experienced greater instability of beliefs over time compared to people without borderline features. In addition, most of the beliefs about emotion shifted with either positive or negative affect. For many of the emotion beliefs, the relationships between affect and belief were moderated by borderline group. Finally, momentary beliefs about emotion also predicted momentary self-efficacy for tolerating distress and exerting willpower. Taken together, results confirm that beliefs about emotion can fluctuate in daily life and that there are implications for emotion beliefs for people who struggle with emotion regulation and impulsivity (i.e., people with features of borderline personality) as well as for self-efficacy in tolerating emotion and engaging in goal-directed action.

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