The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between traumatic content exposure on social media and secondary traumatic stress: The case of Kahramanmaraş earthquakes

The aim of this study is to test a hypothetical model involving the mediation of resilience in the relationship between the duration of exposure to traumatic content related to the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes on social media and secondary traumatic stress. A total of 365 social media users participated in the study, including 290 females (81.9%) and 65 males (18.1%) between the ages of 18 and 35. The research data was collected using the "Personal Information Form", the "Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale for Social Media Users" and the "Brief Resilience Scale". To determine the relationships between the variables, structural equation modeling was used and the significance of indirect effects was tested using the bootstrap method. Research findings indicate a significant partial mediating effect of resilience in the relationship between exposure to traumatic content related to the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes on social media and secondary traumatic stress. The results indicate that individuals exposed to traumatic content for more than eight hours experience a decrease in psychological resilience and an increase in secondary traumatic stress levels. In light of these findings, it is important to include strategies aimed at enhancing individuals' resilience in the planning of programs to help them cope with secondary traumatic stress. Keywords: Social media, Traumatic content exposure, Resilience, Secondary traumatic stress