Stop talking about it already! Co-ruminating and social media focused on COVID-19 was associated with heightened state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and perceived changes in health anxiety during Spring 2020

BACKGROUND: Social distancing presents a significant obstacle for relationships and threatens mental health. Identifying maladaptive, voluntary coping strategies may inform how to maintain interpersonal relationships and mental health during quarantine. Co-ruminating with peers on negative events, moods and fears has adjustment trade-offs of increasing depression and anxiety risk while also enhancing friendship quality. Similarly, social media use is associated with social benefits and risk to mental health. We extend prior research by examining whether co-ruminating on COVID-19, social media use, and social media use focused on COVID-19 during social isolation was associated with heightened depression and anxiety symptoms but also lower loneliness and higher social support during initial lockdown measures in the USA. METHODS: Adults were recruited through social media (n = 345) to complete self-report surveys on co-rumination, social media use, social distancing, social support from March–May 2020. During this cross-sectional assessment, in addition to completing surveys on current depressive symptoms and state and health anxiety, participants also provided retrospective report of their perceived health anxiety levels six months prior. RESULTS: Co-ruminating on COVID-19 with peers and greater time on social media focused on COVID-19 predicted perceived increases in health anxiety and were also associated with higher depressive symptoms and state anxiety, even after controlling for significant demographic predictors. Further, in the context of social distancing, both interaction strategies failed to confer social benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Results have direct implications for maintaining psychosocial health during social distancing restrictions. Adults may modify how they engage with peers by limiting COVID-19 content on social media and COVID-19 discussion.