PSYC 2210: Research Methods in Psychology
Week 4 – Key Article
Key Article Reference in APA format:
Marshall, I. C., Hammer, L. A., Springfield, C. R., & Bonfils, K. A. (2022). Activism in the Digital
Age: The Link Between Social Media Engagement With Black Lives Matter-Relevant
Content and Mental Health. Psychological Reports, 127(5), 2220-2244.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221146706 (Original work published 2024)
Research Topic:
Investigating the possibility of a link between social media engagement with Black Lives Matter
relevant-content and mental health.
Research Question and/or Hypothesis:
If there is greater engagement with social media posts related to BLM, then there would be
greater mental health symptoms, and that this effect would be stronger for participants
identifying as racial minorities
Predictor variable(s): Social media content w/ levels of support for BLM
- Survey used:
4 different levels of support for BLM: highly supportive, moderately supportive, moderately
unsupportive, and highly unsupportive. 2 mock posts were created per level.
✩ Self Report: Participants reported if they would like the post, share the post, or comment
on the post, as well as their level of agreement with the post’s content. Overall “engagement” was
calculated by taking the average of participants' self-reported likelihood to like, share, or
comment on each vignette if they saw it on social media, taking into consideration participants'
agreement with the varied BLM content
Outcome variable(s): Depression and mental health symptoms
- Survey used:
✩ Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8)
✩ General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD)
✩ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5 (PCL)
✩ Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised (SPQ-BR)
Main Results:
A large majority of the findings support the hypothesis that greater engagement with posts
related to BLM is linked to worse mental health symptoms including anxiety, trauma, and
schizotypy symptoms.
This study source was downloaded by 100000901307859 from CourseHero.com on 11-14-2025 04:39:11 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/251703087/Week-4-Lab-Assignment-Chloe-Whalen-Section-002pdf/
Week 4 – Key Article
Key Article Reference in APA format:
Marshall, I. C., Hammer, L. A., Springfield, C. R., & Bonfils, K. A. (2022). Activism in the Digital
Age: The Link Between Social Media Engagement With Black Lives Matter-Relevant
Content and Mental Health. Psychological Reports, 127(5), 2220-2244.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221146706 (Original work published 2024)
Research Topic:
Investigating the possibility of a link between social media engagement with Black Lives Matter
relevant-content and mental health.
Research Question and/or Hypothesis:
If there is greater engagement with social media posts related to BLM, then there would be
greater mental health symptoms, and that this effect would be stronger for participants
identifying as racial minorities
Predictor variable(s): Social media content w/ levels of support for BLM
- Survey used:
4 different levels of support for BLM: highly supportive, moderately supportive, moderately
unsupportive, and highly unsupportive. 2 mock posts were created per level.
✩ Self Report: Participants reported if they would like the post, share the post, or comment
on the post, as well as their level of agreement with the post’s content. Overall “engagement” was
calculated by taking the average of participants' self-reported likelihood to like, share, or
comment on each vignette if they saw it on social media, taking into consideration participants'
agreement with the varied BLM content
Outcome variable(s): Depression and mental health symptoms
- Survey used:
✩ Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8)
✩ General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD)
✩ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5 (PCL)
✩ Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised (SPQ-BR)
Main Results:
A large majority of the findings support the hypothesis that greater engagement with posts
related to BLM is linked to worse mental health symptoms including anxiety, trauma, and
schizotypy symptoms.
This study source was downloaded by 100000901307859 from CourseHero.com on 11-14-2025 04:39:11 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/251703087/Week-4-Lab-Assignment-Chloe-Whalen-Section-002pdf/
