Coping With COVID-19 Stress: The Role of Media Consumption in Emotion- and Problem-Focused Coping

Public Policy Relevance Statement This research shows that people turn to media to cope with significant stressors as much as, if not more than, strategies typically recommended by health professionals. Furthermore, across all coping strategies, only TV/movie viewing seemed to mitigate the negative effects of stress on both coping efficacy and proactive coping behavior. Combined, these findings highlight the critical role media can play in helping people cope meaningfully with stress. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to answer the critical question: How does media use aid (or subvert) emotion- and problem-focused coping with significant life stressors? Based on a national survey (N = 564) conducted on March 20-25, 2020, the week after COVID-19 was declared a U.S. national emergency, evidence offered strong support for the use and value of media, entertainment media in particular, as key aids to coping processes. Looking across a range of coping techniques, only TV/movie and music consumption emerged as a significant mediator between stress and coping efficacy, which, in turn, was significantly associated with social distancing likelihood. These and other results provide evidence for the important role that media consumption can play in supporting coping processes in ways both unique from more basic emotional regulation and beyond techniques typically recommended by health professionals.