IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v17y2025i3p126-d1610206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

University Students’ Subjective Well-Being in Japan Between 2021 and 2023: Its Relationship with Social Media Use

Author

Listed:
  • Shaoyu Ye

    (Institute of Library, Information and Media Science, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8850, Japan)

  • Kevin K. W. Ho

    (Institute of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tokyo 112-0012, Japan)

Abstract

This study investigated whether young adults’ social media use and subjective well-being (SWB) changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examined the possible relationships between social media use, SWB, and personality traits. It included generalized trust, self-consciousness, friendship, and desire for self-presentation and admiration, in relation to different patterns of social media use and genders. Data were collected from university students in Japan from 2021 to 2023 and were analyzed based on different social media use patterns. The conceptual model was based on the cognitive bias and social network mediation models. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and regression analyses. The findings revealed that, over time, young adults’ anxiety toward COVID-19 decreased, while their SWB improved and their social support increased. Depression tendencies showed a negative association, whereas social support was positively related to improvement of SWB for all three patterns of social media use. Furthermore, online communication skills had a positive relationship with improvements in students’ SWB in Patterns 1 (LINE + Twitter + Instagram) and 2 (LINE + Twitter + Instagram + TikTok). The self-indeterminate factor had a positive relationship with students’ SWB for all patterns in 2022 and 2023, and the praise acquisition factor had a positive relationship with improvements in students’ SWB in Patterns 1 and 2. These results suggest that young adults maintained their mental health through different social media usage patterns, considering their personality traits and social situations associated with COVID-19. Particularly, receiving social support, decreasing people’s depression tendencies, and displaying different aspects of the “self” online can improve SWB. This study elucidates the mental health situations of university students in Japan and will help public health authorities develop new support programs that help digital natives improve their mental health in the context of social environmental changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaoyu Ye & Kevin K. W. Ho, 2025. "University Students’ Subjective Well-Being in Japan Between 2021 and 2023: Its Relationship with Social Media Use," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-22, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:126-:d:1610206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/3/126/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/3/126/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew H E M Browning & Lincoln R Larson & Iryna Sharaievska & Alessandro Rigolon & Olivia McAnirlin & Lauren Mullenbach & Scott Cloutier & Tue M Vu & Jennifer Thomsen & Nathan Reigner & Elizabeth Co, 2021. "Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students: Risk factors across seven states in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Binelli, Chiara & Comi, Simona & Meschi, Elena & Pagani, Laura, 2024. "Every cloud has a silver lining: The role of study time and class recordings on university students’ performance during COVID-19," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 305-328.
    2. Ezunu N E & Ezunu E O & Ojimba AO & Agbele T & Egeonu J & Osihro A H & Onyemushani U & Abdulkarim S & Wayemeru OE & Okey-ezufo C & Okorhi Unique Eguolo & Oyakhire Clementina Omole & Eze-otulaka C & In, 2023. "Psychosocial Impact of Covid-19 Disease on Nurses in Federal Medical Centre, Asaba," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(2), pages 94-110, February.
    3. Austin Thompson & Kyle Bunds & Lincoln Larson & Bethany Cutts & J. Aaron Hipp, 2023. "Paying for nature‐based solutions: A review of funding and financing mechanisms for ecosystem services and their impacts on social equity," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 1991-2066, August.
    4. Lindsay Eastgate & Peter A. Creed & Michelle Hood & Andrea Bialocerkowski, 2023. "It Takes Work: How University Students Manage Role Boundaries when the Future is Calling," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(7), pages 1071-1088, November.
    5. Timothy F. Harris & C. Lockwood Reynolds, 2025. "COVID-19 diagnoses and university student performance: evidence from linked administrative health and education data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 603-637, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:126-:d:1610206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.