Proceedings of the 70th International Academic Conference, Madrid

CONFLICT MEDIA EXPOSURE AND STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA-PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

IMAD BOU-HAMAD

Abstract:

Social media has changed how people perceive war, transforming digital platforms into ongoing psychological exposure channels. This study investigates how social media exposure during wartime influenced university students’ mental health, using social media-psychological distress as a mediating mechanism. Quantitative method approach was adopted. Data were collected from 225 Lebanese university students. Grounded in stress and coping theory, the findings showed that increased hours spent on social media strongly predict social media-related psychological distress, which mediated connections with depression, anxiety, and perceived stress. Gender and counseling availability had no moderating effects, while religious coping emerged as a meaningful buffer between distress and mental health outcomes. One open-ended question provided supplementary insights, with students describing social media shifting from escapism into a constant reminder of the heart-wrenching situation. Theoretically, digital platforms reduce the barrier between threat detection and coping deployment during conflict. Practically, the results indicate that while threats are still present, media literacy and culturally-based coping strategies work better than standard counseling in conflict times.

Keywords: conflict; distress; mental health; social media; war

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2026.070.002

PDF: Download