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Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Instant messaging (IM) is increasingly used for family communication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. However, evidence remains scarce on how family e-chat groups were used and their associations with family and individual wellbeing amidst the pandemic. The numbers of family e-chat groups, functions us...

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Autores principales: Gong, Wei-Jie, Wong, Bonny Yee-Man, Ho, Sai-Yin, Lai, Agnes Yuen-Kwan, Zhao, Sheng-Zhi, Wang, Man-Ping, Lam, Tai-Hing
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179139
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author Gong, Wei-Jie
Wong, Bonny Yee-Man
Ho, Sai-Yin
Lai, Agnes Yuen-Kwan
Zhao, Sheng-Zhi
Wang, Man-Ping
Lam, Tai-Hing
author_facet Gong, Wei-Jie
Wong, Bonny Yee-Man
Ho, Sai-Yin
Lai, Agnes Yuen-Kwan
Zhao, Sheng-Zhi
Wang, Man-Ping
Lam, Tai-Hing
author_sort Gong, Wei-Jie
collection PubMed
description Instant messaging (IM) is increasingly used for family communication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. However, evidence remains scarce on how family e-chat groups were used and their associations with family and individual wellbeing amidst the pandemic. The numbers of family e-chat groups, functions used, and messages sent and received daily in groups were reported by 4890 adults in May 2020, and their associations with family wellbeing and personal happiness and the mediation effect of family communication quality were examined. Results showed that sending/receiving text messages was most commonly used, followed by receiving/sending photos/pictures, making voice calls, receiving/sending short videos and voice messages, and making video calls. Women and older people used more non-text functions. Higher levels of family wellbeing and personal happiness were associated with having more groups, receiving/sending photos/pictures, video calls, more IM functions used, and more IM messages received/sent daily. Forty-six point two to seventy-five point five percent of their associations with more groups and more functions used were mediated by family communication quality. People having more family e-chat groups and using more IM functions may be more resilient amidst the pandemic, while those without or with low use of family e-chat groups amidst the pandemic would need more attention and assistance in the presence of social distancing.
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spelling pubmed-84312952021-09-11 Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic Gong, Wei-Jie Wong, Bonny Yee-Man Ho, Sai-Yin Lai, Agnes Yuen-Kwan Zhao, Sheng-Zhi Wang, Man-Ping Lam, Tai-Hing Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Instant messaging (IM) is increasingly used for family communication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. However, evidence remains scarce on how family e-chat groups were used and their associations with family and individual wellbeing amidst the pandemic. The numbers of family e-chat groups, functions used, and messages sent and received daily in groups were reported by 4890 adults in May 2020, and their associations with family wellbeing and personal happiness and the mediation effect of family communication quality were examined. Results showed that sending/receiving text messages was most commonly used, followed by receiving/sending photos/pictures, making voice calls, receiving/sending short videos and voice messages, and making video calls. Women and older people used more non-text functions. Higher levels of family wellbeing and personal happiness were associated with having more groups, receiving/sending photos/pictures, video calls, more IM functions used, and more IM messages received/sent daily. Forty-six point two to seventy-five point five percent of their associations with more groups and more functions used were mediated by family communication quality. People having more family e-chat groups and using more IM functions may be more resilient amidst the pandemic, while those without or with low use of family e-chat groups amidst the pandemic would need more attention and assistance in the presence of social distancing. MDPI 2021-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8431295/ /pubmed/34501729 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179139 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gong, Wei-Jie
Wong, Bonny Yee-Man
Ho, Sai-Yin
Lai, Agnes Yuen-Kwan
Zhao, Sheng-Zhi
Wang, Man-Ping
Lam, Tai-Hing
Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Family E-Chat Group Use Was Associated with Family Wellbeing and Personal Happiness in Hong Kong Adults amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort family e-chat group use was associated with family wellbeing and personal happiness in hong kong adults amidst the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179139
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