Secondary Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Social Media Users after the February 6, Kahramanmaraş Türkiye Earthquakes: The Relationship Social Media Addiction, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Symptom Levels.

Objective: The content shared on social media may cause secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms. The aim of this study is to evaluate the severity of social media related STS and the associated factors in university students who were not directly affected by the February 2023 earthquakes.

Method: In total, 436 university students completed an online survey including the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale for Social Media Users (STSS-SM), the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42), and demographic information and questions regarding social media use preferences after the earthquake.

Results: A large portion of the participants (79.1%) reported that they followed the news about the February 2023 earthquakes on social media instead of other media tools. STS associated with social media addiction, depression, anxiety and stress levels (r=0.475 p<0.001; r=0.543 p<0.001; r=0.583 p<0.001; r=0.591 p<0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that, female gender, social media addiction and anxiety levels predicted STS and explained 43.3% of the total variance. STS symptoms were higher in those who followed the earthquake-related news on social media (t=3.534 p<0.001) and in those who reported that Twitter was their preferred social media platform to access information regarding the earthquake (40.8%; (t=6.376 p=0.002)).

Conclusion: Social media has been widely used for news gathering following the February 2023 earthquakes. The results of this study reveal that STS in social media users is affected by gender, social media addiction, depression, anxiety, stress levels and social media platform preference.