Interpersonal conflicts, social media use and depression associated with protests

Globally, the number of social protests has increased in the 21st century, and these have been associated with mental health consequences. Here we examined how interpersonal conflicts and social media use are associated with depression in a 15-year prospective cohort of 1,044-17,000 adults, assessed at 23 time points before, during and after two major protests in Hong Kong. During the 2019 social unrest, 32.4% of participants reported conflicts with family, friends, colleagues or strangers, higher than during the 2014 Occupy Central period (11.6-27.5%) and the following year (6.0-10.3%). Interpersonal conflicts were associated with depressive outcomes, with long-term associations persisting over 13 years (odds ratio (OR) = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.12-1.97). During the 2019 social unrest, almost half of adults spent ≥1 h per day on politics-related content on social media (47.4%), television (46.5%) and newspapers and radio (42.1%). Only heavy social media use (≥2 h per day) was positively associated with interpersonal conflicts and depression. Our findings suggest that protests are associated with depression in the long term as a result of sustained interpersonal conflicts, while heavy social media use may contribute to the association. To mitigate this impact, it is vital to provide social support to improve mental health of the affected individuals.