IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i3p1910-d1042038.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Social Media Uses and Gratifications on Family Health among U.S. Parents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author

Listed:
  • Eliza Olpin

    (Department of Public Health, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA)

  • Carl L. Hanson

    (Department of Public Health, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA)

  • AliceAnn Crandall

    (Department of Public Health, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA)

Abstract

Some research suggests that parents on social media have access to greater social support and health information. However, evidence also connects parental social media use to negative outcomes including increased parental stress, depression, and distraction. Using the uses and gratification theory, this study goes beyond measures of parents’ individual mental health and explores social media use and its association with family well-being. Family health outcomes were predicted to vary with parents’ use and gratifications of social media, with parents who use social media primarily for information and connection scoring higher on family health and parents who used social media for entertainment scoring worse on family health. The sample included 482 heterosexual married or cohabiting partners recruited through a Qualtrics panel. All participants were parents of children ages of 3–13, with mothers and fathers each completing the survey. Findings indicated that fathers’ use of social media for entertainment and connecting with family and friends was associated with better family well-being and health resources ( p < 0.01). However, mothers’ use of social media did not have a statistically meaningful relationship with family health variables. There was no evidence that parental social media use was associated with negative family health outcomes. Longitudinal data is needed to determine the temporal relationship between social media use and family health. Public health professionals interested in improving family health may consider how to better reach fathers on social media to increase health resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliza Olpin & Carl L. Hanson & AliceAnn Crandall, 2023. "Influence of Social Media Uses and Gratifications on Family Health among U.S. Parents: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1910-:d:1042038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1910/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1910/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fortuna Procentese & Flora Gatti & Immacolata Di Napoli, 2019. "Families and Social Media Use: The Role of Parents’ Perceptions about Social Media Impact on Family Systems in the Relationship between Family Collective Efficacy and Open Communication," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Jeffrey Dew & Sarah Tulane, 2015. "The Association Between Time Spent Using Entertainment Media and Marital Quality in a Contemporary Dyadic National Sample," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 621-632, December.
    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. Jeffrey Dew, 2021. "Ten Years of Marriage and Cohabitation Research in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 52-61, July.
    2. Shirley Man-Man Sit & Wei-Jie Gong & Sai-Yin Ho & Agnes Yuen-Kwan Lai & Bonny Yee-Man Wong & Man-Ping Wang & Tai-Hing Lam, 2022. "A Population Study on COVID-19 Information Sharing: Sociodemographic Differences and Associations with Family Communication Quality and Well-Being in Hong Kong," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-11, March.
    3. Tran Dai Tri Han & Keiko Nakamura & Kaoruko Seino & Vo Nu Hong Duc & Thang Van Vo, 2021. "Do Communication Patterns Affect the Association between Cognitive Impairment and Hearing Loss among Older Adults in Vietnam?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, 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:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1910-:d:1042038. 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.