The COVID-19 pandemic had a detrimental impact on adolescent mental health, but few studies have explicitly compared adolescents’ mental health across countries, nor have they explored how different uses of media by adolescents in different countries may serve as protective or detrimental factors. To explore these associations, we use data collected from 958 South Korean adolescents and 1,253 United States (U.S.) adolescents in spring 2022 (ages 14–18). U.S. adolescents scored higher on anxiety and loneliness, relative to South Korean adolescents, and U.S. adolescents’ social media use frequency related positively to these variables. Conversely, South Korean adolescents’ social media use frequency was not related to anxiety or depression, and was negatively related to loneliness. Thus, social media use appears to relate detrimentally to U.S. adolescents’ mental health but relates in a more protective way to South Korean adolescents’ mental health. We discuss differential social media use and country differences to contextualize these findings.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 流行病、青少年媒体使用和心理健康：比较韩国和美国青少年之间的关系

COVID-19大流行对青少年心理健康产生了不利影响，但很少有研究明确比较各国青少年的心理健康状况，也没有探讨不同国家青少年对媒体的不同使用如何可能成为保护或有害因素。为了探索这些关联，我们使用了 2022 年春季从 958 名韩国青少年和 1,253 名美国青少年（14-18 岁）收集的数据。相对于韩国青少年，美国青少年的焦虑和孤独感得分更高，并且美国青少年的社交媒体使用频率与这些变量呈正相关。相反，韩国青少年的社交媒体使用频率与焦虑或抑郁无关，与孤独感呈负相关。因此，社交媒体的使用似乎对美国青少年的心理健康不利，但对韩国青少年的心理健康却具有更强的保护作用。我们讨论了不同的社交媒体使用和国家差异，以将这些发现置于背景中。