Digital Stress and Well-being Among Peruvian Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The already prominent salience and centrality of digital platforms for adolescents has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increased dependency on devices for education, entertainment, and connection. This is specially the case for countries in Latin America, which experienced particularly prolonged school closures. Previous studies have found that digital stress moderates the impact that social media and digital devices have on psychosocial outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness, among young adults and a small sample of adolescents (Hall et al., 2021). In this study, we extend these findings to a sample of Peruvian adolescents during the second year of remote instruction because of COVID- 19 restrictions. Using a split-sample approach, we (1) validated a Spanish version of the digital stress scale (Hall et al., 2021), (2) investigated developmental and sex differences in digital stress and its components, and (3) investigated associations of digital stress with mental health symptoms. We found robust sex differences in approval anxiety, fear of missing out, and online vigilance and robust age differences in approval anxiety and fear of missing out. We did not find differences in availability stress or connection overload. We also found that higher levels of digital stress were associated with increased perceived stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and were overall higher for female and older adolescents. These results shed light on how subjective experiences of digital media use and may influence adolescent mental health and well-being.