JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

COVID-19 has spread like wildfire across the globe, prompting many governments to impose unprecedented stay-at-home orders to limit its transmission. During an extended stay-at-home period, individuals may spend more leisure time than usual on the Internet and thus become more vulnerable to Internet use-related problems.

Objective:

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to (1) examine the amount of leisure time allocated to Internet use relative to offline activities during the COVID-19 stay-at-home period; (2) assess the prevalence of probable depression and its association with psychosocial risk (cyberbullying victimization) and resource (social support) factors; and (3) explain the positive link between leisure-time Internet use and depression through cyberbullying victimization (risk exposure hypothesis) and social support (time displacement hypothesis).

Methods:

Methods:

This study took place from March to May 2020 during the early stage of the pandemic. The study adopted a prospective design, with an online survey administered to 573 U.K. and 474 U.S. adult residents at two assessment points two months apart.

Results:

Results:

The participants spent an average of 6.11 hours (bootstrap BCa 95% CI: 5.87–6.35) on leisure-time Internet use in a typical day during the stay-at-home period. The prevalence of moderate-to-severe depression was 36% (bootstrap BCa 95% CI: 33%–39%) at Time 1 and 28% (bootstrap BCa 95% CI: 25%–30%) at the follow-up. Time 2 depression was positively associated with both leisure-time Internet use and cyberbullying victimization but inversely associated with perceived support from family and friends assessed at Time 1 (unstandardized bs ranging from -0.47–0. 58, ps < 0.05). The findings further revealed cyberbullying victimization and perceived family support to exert parallel mediation effects on the association between leisure-time Internet use and depression, providing support for both the risk exposure and time displacement hypotheses of Internet use.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: During the extended stay-at-home period in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.K. and U.S. residents generally spent large amounts of their leisure time on the Internet, and the prevalence of probable depression during the two-month study period was high. The experience of depression can be explained by leisure-time Internet use, which increased the exposure to cyberbullying victimization and displaced time for family support.