A daily diary study into the effects on mental health of COVID-19 pandemic-related behaviors
Open accessAbstract
Background: Recommendations for promoting mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic include maintaining social contact, through virtual rather than physical contact, moderating substance/alcohol use, and limiting news and media exposure. We seek to understand if these pandemic-related behaviors impact subsequent mental health. Methods: Daily online survey data were collected on adults during May/June 2020. Measures were of daily physical and virtual (online) contact with others; substance and media use; and indices of psychological striving, struggling and COVID-related worry. Using random-intercept cross-lagged panel analysis, dynamic within-person cross-lagged effects were separated from more static individual differences. Results: In total, 1148 participants completed daily surveys [657 (57.2%) females, 484 (42.1%) males; mean age 40.6 ( s.d. 12.4) years]. Daily increases in news consumed increased COVID-related worrying the next day [cross-lagged estimate = 0.034 (95% CI 0.018–0.049), FDR-adjusted p = 0.00005] and vice versa [0.03 (0.012–0.048), FDR-adjusted p = 0.0017]. Increased media consumption also exacerbated subsequent psychological struggling [0.064 (0.03–0.098), FDR-adjusted p = 0.0005]. There were no significant cross-lagged effects of daily changes in social distancing or virtual contact on later mental health. Conclusions: We delineate a cycle wherein a daily increase in media consumption results in a subsequent increase in COVID-related worries, which in turn increases daily media consumption. Moreover, the adverse impact of news extended to broader measures of psychological struggling. A similar dynamic did not unfold between the daily amount of physical or virtual contact and subsequent mental health. Findings are consistent with current recommendations to moderate news and media consumption in order to promote mental health.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Worry about the COVID-19 pandemic predicted increased consumption of pandemic-related media and doomscrolling, which in turn led to further increases in negative emotions and pandemic-related worry.
“Several studies found that worry about the pandemic predicted increased consumption of pandemic-related media and doomscrolling, which in turn led to further increases in negative emotions and pandemic-related worry [74,149-151].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [151]
The Results report that COVID-related worry predicted greater news/media consumption the next day, while greater consumption predicted subsequent worry and psychological struggling. The Discussion describes this as a vicious cycle. The paper does not identify or measure doomscrolling specifically, so that part of the claim is not established by this source. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDaily survey studies found a bidirectional relationship: increased exposure to COVID-19 news on one day increased COVID-19 worries the next day, and higher worries on one day predicted higher media exposure the next day.
“According to daily survey studies, increased exposure to COVID-19 news on one day increased COVID-19 worries the next day, and higher worries on one day predicted higher media exposure the next day [150,151].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [151]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Controlling the False Discovery Rate: A Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing
Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y. (1995) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology · doi:10.1111/j.2517-6161.1995.tb02031.x · Cited by 109,482 · see citing works
The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x · Cited by 44,910 · see citing works
A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The GAD-7
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092 · Cited by 31,765 · see citing works
The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence
Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 · Cited by 16,378 · see citing works
Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002) · Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5 · Cited by 16,280 · see citing works
Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance
Chen, F. F. (2007) · Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1080/10705510701301834 · Cited by 12,217 · see citing works
Mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic
Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmp2008017 · Cited by 4,378 · see citing works
A critique of the cross-lagged panel model
Hamaker, E. L., Kuiper, R. M., & Grasman, R. P. P. P. (2015) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/a0038889 · Cited by 4,005 · see citing works
COVID-19 pandemic and mental health consequences: Systematic review of the current evidence
Vindegaard, N., & Benros, M. E. (2020) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.048 · Cited by 3,221 · see citing works
Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak
Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., Wang, Y., Fu, H., & Dai, J. (2020) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0231924 · Cited by 2,830 · see citing works
COVID-19 and Racial/Ethnic Disparities
Hooper, M. W., Nápoles, A. M., & Pérez‐Stable, E. J. (2020) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2020.8598 · Cited by 2,047 · see citing works
Santini, Z. I., Jose, P. E., York Cornwell, E., Koyanagi, A., Nielsen, L., Hinrichsen, C., Meilstrup, C., Madsen, K. R., & Koushede, V. (2020) · The Lancet Public Health · doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(19)30230-0 · Cited by 1,755 · see citing works
Hospitalization and mortality among Black patients and White patients with Covid-19.
Price-Haywood, E. G., Burton, J., Fort, D., & Seoane, L. (2020) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa2011686 · Cited by 1,660 · see citing works
Three Extensions of the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model
Mulder, J. D., & Hamaker, E. L. (2021) · Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1080/10705511.2020.1784738 · Cited by 1,151 · see citing works
O'Connor, R. C., Wetherall, K., Cleare, S., McClelland, H., Melson, A. J., Niedzwiedz, C. L., O'Carroll, R. E., O'Connor, D. B., Platt, S., Scowcroft, E., et al. (2021) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.212 · Cited by 1,042 · see citing works
Psychological side effects of breast cancer screening.
Lerman, C. E., Trock, B. J., Rimer, B. K., Jepson, C., Brody, D. S., & Boyce, A. (1991) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.10.4.259 · Cited by 624 · see citing works
Alcohol use and misuse during the COVID-19 pandemic: a potential public health crisis?
Clay, J. M., & Parker, M. O. (2020) · The Lancet Public Health · doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30088-8 · Cited by 617 · see citing works
Fear of COVID-19 and the mental health consequences in America.
Fitzpatrick, K. M., Harris, C. T., & Drawve, G. R. (2020) · Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy · doi:10.1037/tra0000924 · Cited by 598 · see citing works
Boas, T. C., Christenson, D. P., & Glick, D. M. (2020) · Political Science Research and Methods · doi:10.1017/psrm.2018.28 · Cited by 570 · see citing works
Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in two longitudinal UK population cohorts
Kwong, A. S. F., Pearson, R. M., Adams, M. J., Northstone, K., Tilling, K. M., Major‐Smith, D., Fawns‐Ritchie, C., Bould, H., Warne, N., Zammit, S., et al. (2020) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.242 · Cited by 518 · see citing works
Ni, M. Y., Yang, L., Leung, C. M. C., Li, N., Yao, X. I., Wang, Y., Leung, G. M., Cowling, B. J., & Liao, Q. (2020) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/19009 · Cited by 445 · see citing works
Critical comments on applying covariance structure modeling
Brannick, M. Τ. (1995) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.4030160303 · Cited by 350 · see citing works
The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on substance use: Implications for prevention and treatment
Ornell, F. R., Moura, H. F., Scherer, J. N., Pechansky, F., Kessler, F. H. P., & DIEMEN, L. V. (2020) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113096 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
Exposure to coronavirus news on mainstream media: The role of risk perceptions and depression
Olagoke, A. A., Olagoke, O. O., & Hughes, A. M. (2020) · British Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjhp.12427 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Alonzi, S. P., Torre, A. L., & Silverstein, M. W. (2020) · Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy · doi:10.1037/tra0000840 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Amsalem, D., Dixon, L., & Neria, Y. (2020) · JAMA psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.1730 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Sneed, R. S., Key, K., Bailey, S., & Johnson‐Lawrence, V. (2020) · Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy · doi:10.1037/tra0000881 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 28 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Liu, D., Fan, S., Huang, X., Gu, W., Yin, Y., Zhang, Z., Ma, B., Xia, R., Lu, Y., Liu, J., et al. (2024) · Health care science · doi:10.1002/hcs2.125 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective.
Kesner, L., Juríčková, V., Grygarová, D., & Horáček, J. (2025) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/68640 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
“According to daily survey studies, increased exposure to COVID-19 news on one day increased COVID-19 worries the next day, and higher worries on one day predicted higher media exposure the next day [150,151].”
Suicidal behaviour and ideation among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic
Grace, R. D.-D., Carvalho, D., Courtney, D., & Aitken, M. (2023) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101650 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Adaptation to changes in COVID-19 pandemic severity: Across older adulthood and time scales.
Segerstrom, S. C., Crosby, P., Witzel, D. D., Kurth, M. L., Choun, S., & Aldwin, C. M. (2023) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/pag0000739 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Dyar, C., Crosby, S. T., Newcomb, M. E., Mustanski, B. S., & Kaysen, D. L. (2022) · Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity · doi:10.1037/sgd0000585 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Daily experiences and adolescent affective wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: The CHESS model
McMahon, T. P., Villaume, S. C., & Adam, E. K. (2023) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101654 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Lin, J., Zajdel, M., Keller, K. R., Macfoy, F. O. G., Shaw, P., Curtis, B. L., Ungar, L., & Koehly, L. M. (2022) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-022-14103-x · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationDynamics of sadness by race, ethnicity, and income following George Floyd's death
Lin, J., Shaw, P., Curtis, B. L., Ungar, L., & Koehly, L. M. (2022) · SSM - Mental Health · doi:10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100134 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationLiu, D., Fan, S., Huang, X., Gu, W., Yin, Y., Zhang, Z., Ma, B., Xia, R., Lu, Y., Liu, J., et al. (2024) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2024.03.28.24305038 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
The psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business leadership
Mesquiti, S., & Seraj, S. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290621 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Introduction: Unlocking Memory Studies: Understanding Collective Remembrance During and of Covid-19
Fridman, O., & Gensburger, S. (2023) · Palgrave Macmillan memory studies · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-34597-5_1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Lived experiences of covid-19 survivors: Insights from a manufacturing industry in Harare, Zimbabwe
Tarisayi, D. (2023) · Global Journal of Psychology Research New Trends and Issues · doi:10.18844/gjpr.v13i1.6042
Cheyroux, P., Morin, A. J. S., O’Connor, R. M., Colombat, P., Vancappel, A., Eltanoukhi, R., & Gillet, N. (2026) · Stress and Health · doi:10.1002/smi.70162
liu, W., Wang, J., Xu, Q., Du, X., & Sui, X. (2026) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2026.2720254
- Authors
- Shaw, P., Blizzard, S., Shastri, G., Kundzicz, P., Curtis, B., Ungar, L., & Koehly, L.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- National Institute of Mental Health (US)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- National Human Genome Research Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Shaw, Philip
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2021-07-12
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1-9
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC8326671
- OpenAlex
- W3181127484
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 1.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Human Genome Research Institute
- Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, news consumption, media exposure, social distancing, virtual contact, substance use, alcohol consumption, within-person dynamics
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Ethanol, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
