Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents: The relevance of lifestyle segmentation

Rivera, R. et al., Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents, Evaluation Review (40.2) pp. 142-161. Copyright © 2016 (The Authors). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.Exposure to media violence might have detrimental effects on psychological adjustment and is associated with aggression-related attitudes and behaviors. As a result, many media literacy programs were implemented to tackle that major public health issue. However, there is little evidence about their effectiveness. Evaluating design effectiveness, particularly regarding targeting process, would prevent adverse effects and improve the evaluation of evidence-based media literacy programs. Objectives: The present research examined whether or not different relational lifestyles may explain the different effects of an antiviolence intervention program. Research design: Based on relational and lifestyles theory, the authors designed a randomized controlled trial and applied an analysis of variance 2 (treatment: experimental vs. control) OE 4 (lifestyle classes emerged from data using latent class analysis: communicative vs. autonomous vs. meta-reflexive vs. fractured). Subjects: Seven hundred and thirty-five Italian students distributed in 47 classes participated anonymously in the research (51.3% females). Measures: Participants completed a lifestyle questionnaire as well as their attitudes and behavioral intentions as the dependent measures. Results: The results indicated that the program was effective in changing adolescents' attitudes toward violence. However, behavioral intentions toward consumption of violent video games were moderated by lifestyles. Those with communicative relational lifestyles showed fewer intentions to consume violent video games, while a boomerang effect was found among participants with problematic lifestyles. Conclusion: Adolescents' lifestyles played an important role in influencing the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at changing behavioral intentions toward the consumption of violent video games. For that reason, audience lifestyle segmentation analysis should be considered an essential technique for designing, evaluating, and improving media literacy programsThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the European Union (Grant number JUST/2010/DAP3/AG/1111-30-CE-0397890/00-02) and Intermedia Consulting A.C. (Grant number SSM2011-2013

"Hegelian Buddhist Hypertextual Media Inhabitation, or, Criticism in the Age of Electronic Immersion"

What can it mean to criticize when you are inside the work itself? In a immersive electronic or digital environment critic is not distanced on a platform based on firm principles. Yet criticism self-awareness and commentary remain possible. This essay examines various techniques for dealing with immersive environments critically

A qualitative exploration of the health awareness and social challenges facing Pakistani youth engaging in body piercing and tattooing

Background: The practice of body piercing and tattooing in youth is increasing inPakistan, and there is fear that awareness of the associated health risks is low. The aim ofthis study is to try and understand: (i) youth awareness of health risks associated withbody piercing and tattooing, and (ii) the social challenges facing youth who engage insuch practices, which might also impact their health and wellbeing. The findings areaimed to inform improved health and social policy support for population groupsengaging in body modification. Methods: Scholars agree that qualitative research is vitalto explore health challenges and guide health policy. This study adopted a qualitativedesign and used purposive snowball sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnairewas developed through a literature review. Setting: Participants were sampled in a privateand confidential space on university campus or online, based on willingness andconvenience. Participants: Eight university students from different urban cities of Punjabwere sampled through in-depth interviews. Findings: Sixteen sub-themes were identifiedunder five main thematic areas, including: 1) Limited Awareness of Health Risks; 2)Reason for body modifications; 3) History of emotional and physical neglect by parents;4) Social difficulties faced after body modification; and 5) Association with other deviantactivities. Conclusion: The youth of Pakistan need health and social interventions toimprove preventive and screening support from practitioners, family-level counseling forimproved social support, therapy for mental health, and surveillance and support forsuicide ideation, intoxicant abuse, addiction, dealing with parental neglect, and identityformation

Online civic intervention: A new form of political participation under conditions of a disruptive online discourse

In the everyday practice of online communication, we observe users deliberately reporting abusive content or opposing hate speech through counterspeech, while at the same time, online platforms are increasingly relying on and supporting this kind of user action to fight disruptive online behavior. We refer to this type of user engagement as online civic intervention (OCI) and regard it as a new form of user-based political participation in the digital sphere that contributes to an accessible and reasoned public discourse. Because OCI has received little scholarly attention thus far, this article conceptualizes low- and high-threshold types of OCI as different kinds of user responses to common disruptive online behavior such as hate speech or hostility toward the media. Against the background of participation research, we propose a theoretically grounded individual-level model that serves to explain OCI

You’ve got mail! : Explaining individual differences in becoming a phishing target

Although phishing is a form of cybercrime that internet users get confronted with rather frequently, many people still get deceived by these practices. Since receiving phishing e-mails is an important prerequisite of victimization, this study focusses on becoming a phishing target. More precisely, we use an integrative lifestyle exposure model to study the effects of risky online routine activities that make a target more likely to come across a motivated offender. Insights of the lifestyle exposure model are combined with propensity theories in order to determine which role impulsivity plays in phishing targeting. To achieve these objectives, data collected in 2016 from a representative sample (n = 723) were used. Support was found for a relationship between both online purchasing behavior and digital copying behavior, and phishing targeting. Moreover, a relationship was found between all online activities (except for online purchasing behavior) and impulsivity. The present study thus suggests that especially online shoppers and users who often share and use copied files online should be trained to deal with phishing attacks appropriately

Factors Affecting the Help-Seeking Behaviour of Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) Groups for Mental Health Services in the UK: A Literature Review

Background: There are numerous reports from government publications, mental health charities, the World Health Organisation and array of journal articles all writing about mental health issues in relation to Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME). It appears to have become common knowledge that there are disparities in the treatment received by BAME individuals from mental health services. It also commonly reported that BAME individuals are more likely to access mental services via adverse routes, this prognosis is said to worsen in the case of Black males.Aims: This review aims to explore what factors influence BAME individuals’ help-seeking behaviour for mental health services in the UK. It also explores why BAME individuals access mental health services at certain entry points.Methodology: This is a systematic literature review of 16 peer-reviewed journal articles reporting on data from UK-based studies, with a critical analysis in a thematic style. Findings: The help-seeking behaviours of participants in the studies are strongly determined by the values and beliefs they hold, which are deeply steeped in their culture. BAME individuals report that mental health professionals do not understand nor seek to understand their religious and cultural views on mental illnesses. Also, the impact of internalised and external stigma instigates secrecy whereby individuals hide their symptoms from professional mental health services and even from their extended family members.Conclusion: Culture plays a major role and impacts directly on peoples’ help-seeking behaviours. Individuals from BAME background tend to seek support from extended family members for physical illnesses but often hide their mental symptoms. 

Diminishing Stigma Sentiments in Individuals with Depression: Sociopsychological Predictors of Deflecting and Challenging Coping Orientations

Individuals who suffer from depression can be stigmatized by labeling and resort to negative stigma coping orientations such as secrecy and withdrawal, resulting in internalized self-stigma. Self-stigma can have negative effects such as low self-esteem, low self-efficacy, isolation, and feeling like a failure. Guided by modified labeling theory, the purpose of this study was to fill a gap in the literature on predictors of two orientations (challenging and deflecting) of positive stigma coping. Challenging stigma involves taking action, and deflecting is a cognitive strategy; both are used to positively cope with the stigma of mental illness. Predictors included symptom severity, depression literacy, stereotype awareness, treatment seeking, social support, and stigma sentiments in a sample of undergraduates (N = 195). Results from a canonical correlation found that individuals with high scores on deflecting and, simultaneously, low scores on challenging tended to have high scores on stigma sentiments and low scores on both symptom severity and treatment seeking. Analyzed in independent regressions, challenging was significantly predicted only by symptom severity (+), while deflecting was predicted by symptom severity (-), depression literacy (+), and stigma sentiments (+). These findings reinforce the potential for individuals who suffer from depression to address stigma using healthier and more affirming coping orientations. Implications for positive social change include a decrease in self-stigma regarding depression, less negative stigma coping, an increased awareness of how depression stigma affects individuals who suffer from the disorder, and a decrease in the social stigma of depression. Educators and practitioners can apply this information in academia, counseling, and clinical practice

Relationally Aggressive Media Exposure and Children’s Normative Beliefs: Does Parental Mediation Matter?

Research indicates that relationally aggressive media exposure is positively associated with relational aggression in children. Theories of media effects suggest that these associations may be mediated by aggressive cognitions. Although parental mediation can attenuate the effects of violent media, it is unknown whether there are similar benefits of parental mediation of relationally aggressive media. The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between relationally aggressive television and movie exposure and normative beliefs about relational aggression, and whether parental mediation moderates these associations. Participants were 103 children (50% female) in grades 3-6 and their parents. The following year, 48 children (52% female) were again assessed. Relationally aggressive media exposure predicted concurrent relational aggression norms, even after controlling for physically aggressive media exposure and physical aggression norms. Relationally aggressive television and movie exposure predicted greater subsequent approval of relational aggression only among children whose parents engaged in low levels of active mediation