ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS COPING AND PROBLEMATIC-INTERNET USE WITH SELF-CONTROL IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study aimed to observe the correlation between the Islamic Religious Coping and the Problematic Internet Use (PIU) with the self-control as the mediator variable towards the university students in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used purposive sampling technique, involved 304 active university students, male and female, 17 to 26 years old, muslim, and currently undergoing online learning. It used Iranian Religious Coping (IRCOPE) scale, Self-Control Scale (SCS), and Generalized Problematic Internet Use-2 (GPIUS-2) that have been adapted into Indonesia language. The data analysis method used is SEM analysis using the path analysis model with AMOS 26.0. It showed that Islamic religious coping had a direct effect on self-control (p=***; 0.300) and self-control could impact the problematic internet use indirectly (p=***; -0.226). However, the Islamic religious coping was not able to impact the problematic internet use (p=0.229; -0.70). This showed that the hypothesis was accepted as self-control could be the full mediator variable towards the problematic internet use

Is real screen time a determinant of problematic smartphone and social network use among young people?

Smartphone use by adolescents is increasingly attracting the interest of social scientists, parents, and educational stakeholders (teachers, educators, educational policy makers), generally in a negative context. There are, however, many myths surrounding the issue, resulting from the reproduction of stereotypes about the psychosocial functioning of adolescents in cyberspace, as well as inadequately constructed research tools that measure how new media are used. This text is an attempt to show the phenomenon of problematic Internet use through the prism of screen time measured using real data from smartphones. The research was conducted in first half of 2022 among adolescents aged 13–19 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (N = 1185, mean age = 15.47 with standard deviation = 1.84). The research was implemented using a triangulation of tools such as the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS Scale), Software Installed on the Smartphone (SIS Scale), The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), and the Screen Time Scale (STS). From the data collected, it was noted that: 1) Screen time correlates weakly with problematic smartphone use and social networking; 2)The average period of smartphone use in the study group is 3 h49 minutes per day, of which 37 min are related to web browsing, while 2 h22 minutes are related to social networking; 3) A quarter of adolescents use a smartphone more than 5.5 h per day, of which more than 2 h15 minutes is screen time related to social media; 4) Approximately half of the respondents use smartphones slightly more than 2 h per day; 5) Girls use smartphones for longer than boys; 6) Place of residence (city or countryside) does not affect screen time; 7) Screen time is related to a medium degree to the type of software installed on the smartphone; 8) There is a need to refine the measurement methodology of screen time and to abandon self-declaration in this area

The Impacts of Advancements in Digital Technologies on Students’ Self-Regulated Learning

This study examined student digital technology usage and student self-regulated learning in 2012 and 2020. Digital technologies have become a staple in both our learning environment, as well as our personal environment. In order to promote and enhance student self-regulated learning, two domains were examined in this study: the student’s personal environment and the educational provider’s learning environment. This holistic examination led to the development a Dual Model of Self-Regulated Learning for supporting student learning

EATING ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTION OF PEER SOCIAL MEDIA

There is evidence that social factors influence eating-disordered behaviors through social modeling and social comparison. One way that researchers examine social comparison and perceptions of individuals with disordered eating behaviors is through vignette studies, but these studies may lack the nuance of how these behaviors are displayed outside of the lab, and therefore lack external validity. The current study examined how individuals who score high and low on the EAT-26 (a measure of eating behavior) perceive the eating behaviors of a fictional peer and possible social comparison target, presented in the form of a social media profile. Participants with higher scores on the EAT-26 found statuses that displayed potentially eating-disordered behaviors as more acceptable and were more likely to think it “might not be bad” to be like the woman in the profile, but did not find the statuses any more healthy, less concerning, or the profile as a whole as less distressing. Approximately half of the sample identified the woman in the profile as having an eating disorder, and EAT-26 scores had no predictive value in making this determination

Prevention priorities for online challenges and harms in adolescence and assessment of smartphone distraction: an emotive-cognitive perspective

Evidence suggests that problematic use of gaming, the internet and social media among adolescents is on the rise and developing into global growing issues affecting multiple cognitive, emotional and behavioural domains. How are these experienced and conceptualized among students, parents and teachers? The first part of this thesis comprised two systematic literature reviews on school-based interventions for internet addiction and excessive screen time. Findings indicated the need to focus prevention beyond time spent into harms and challenges faced in adolescence through mental health literacy and skill development and by incorporating parent and teacher media literacy training. Five qualitative studies followed as a qualitative needs assessment investigation. The frst analyzed key adolescent motivations for online engagement and highlighted control as a new motivational factor driving engagement. This study led to the development of the control model of social media engagement, proposing individual, social and environmental pathways from normative to potentially problematic online behaviours. Additionally, adolescent online harms were conceptualised by stakeholders as running on a severity continuum from benefits to harms beyond addiction. Parent and teacher perspectives informed key recommendations for media literacy education. The second part of the present thesis involved two quantitative studies, addressed smartphone distraction impacting students' academic performance through the design of the first psychometric instrument within smartphone use. The final study encompassed the assessment of a brief online randomized controlled trial to curb smartphone distraction and findings indicated the efficacy of the intervention and the reduction of potentially probematic smartphone-related psychological constructs. The present thesis addresses critical priorities and recommendations for online harm reduction in adolescence. Dissemination of findings are timely for media literacy in schools in the UK and other countries with policy intentions to safeguard for young people's emotional health. Assessing smartphone distraction contributes to the understanding of this emergent disruptive construct contributing to initiatives to enhance students' academic performance and well-being within higher education and work environments

Investigating links between Internet literacy, Internet use, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents in the digital age

IntroductionIn current digital era, adolescents’ Internet use has increased exponentially, with the Internet playing a more and more important role in their education and entertainment. However, due to the ongoing cognitive, emotion, and social development processes, youth and adolescents are more vulnerable to Internet addiction. Attention has been paid to the increased use of Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of Internet literacy in prevention and intervention of Internet addiction.MethodsThe present study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the links between Internet literacy, Internet use of different purpose and duration, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents. In this study, N = 2,276 adolescents studying in primary and secondary schools in East China were recruited, and they completed self-reports on sociodemographic characteristics, Internet literacy scale, Internet use, and Internet addiction scale.ResultsThe results showed a significant relationship between Internet use and Internet addiction. To be specific, the duration of Internet use significantly and positively affected Internet addiction. With different dimensions of Internet literacy required, entertainment-oriented Internet use had positive impact on Internet addiction, while education-oriented Internet use exerted negative effects on Internet addiction. As for Internet literacy, knowledge and skills for Internet (positively) and Internet self-management (negatively) significantly influenced the likelihood of Internet addiction.DiscussionThe findings suggest that Internet overuse increases the risk of Internet addiction in youth and adolescents, while entertainment-oriented rather than education-oriented Internet use is addictive. The role of Internet literacy is complicated, with critical Internet literacy preventing the development of Internet addiction among youth and adolescents, while functional Internet literacy increasing the risk

Internet and Smartphone Use-Related Addiction Health Problems: Treatment, Education and Research

This Special Issue presents some of the main emerging research on technological topics of health and education approaches to Internet use-related problems, before and during the beginning of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The objective is to provide an overview to facilitate a comprehensive and practical approach to these new trends to promote research, interventions, education, and prevention. It contains 40 papers, four reviews and thirty-five empirical papers and an editorial introducing everything in a rapid review format. Overall, the empirical ones are of a relational type, associating specific behavioral addictive problems with individual factors, and a few with contextual factors, generally in adult populations. Many have adapted scales to measure these problems, and a few cover experiments and mixed methods studies. The reviews tend to be about the concepts and measures of these problems, intervention options, and prevention. In summary, it seems that these are a global culture trend impacting health and educational domains. Internet use-related addiction problems have emerged in almost all societies, and strategies to cope with them are under development to offer solutions to these contemporary challenges, especially during the pandemic situation that has highlighted the global health problems that we have, and how to holistically tackle them

The Role of Media Literacy in Online Information Searching Strategies

Along with the spread of Web 2.0 technologies, individuals' habits such as learning, socializing, and getting information have changed rapidly. A lot of information, the accuracy of which cannot be trusted, is available in the web, and it becomes difficult to choose useful, relevant, and accurate information. This pollution is also present in the media. The abilities to choose messages in the media, to look at these messages critically, and to produce your own messages are considered among the 21st-century skills. These reasons bring media literacy (ML) and online information searching strategies (OISS) to the agenda. The processes of ML and OISS have interrelated features. Therefore, it is important and necessary to examine these concepts together. Based on this necessity, the aim of the study was to determine the role of ML in OISS. To this end, the data were collected from 1809 pre-service teachers using the OISS inventory and the ML level determination scale. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. According to the results, pre-service teachers' ML and OISS levels were above the moderate level. ML and OISS vary significantly according to the type of websites. In conclusion, ML was revealed as a predictor variable that could explain OISS at a rate of 33.2%

Associations of Traditional and Peer Cyber-Victimization With Adolescents' Internet Use: A Latent Profile Analysis

Significant overlap exists between traditional victimization and peer cyber-victimization. Yet, they can also be somewhat differentiated. Adopting person-centered approaches, studies showed that multiple classes of peer victimization are distinguishable. In particular, this study analyzed the differences in Internet use, Internet motives and behavior and ethical media use of adolescents who are victimized only (or mainly) online (i.e., "cyber-victims"), their peers who are victimized at school ("traditional victims"), students who are frequently victimized both offline and online ("dual victims"), and students who are not victimized. A sample of 1377 Italian adolescents (49.5% females, age M = 16.13, SD = 1.27) completed self-report questionnaires of traditional and peer cyber-victimization and a variety of Internet-related measures. Latent profile analysis yielded four distinct groups: non-victims (79.6% of the sample), traditional victims (9.2%), cyber-victims (9.1%), and dual victims (2.1%). Among the four groups, dual victims, that is, adolescents who are frequently victimized both at school and online, showed the most problematic use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Dual victims and cyber-victims also reported to engage more frequently than the other groups in a variety of Internet activities (e.g., role-playing games and visiting adult sites). Traditional victims reported more coping and conformity motives for using Internet compared to non-victims and, in the latter case, also to cyber-victims. The current findings may help to better understand the link between traditional victimization and peer cyber-victimization with adolescent's use of information and communication technologies and may inform prevention and educational programs about positive use of new technologies among adolescents

Self-esteem and Social Media Dependency: A Comparative Analysis of Welsh- and English-Medium Pupils’ Perceptions

Despite not being officially recognized as an addiction, studies suggest social media dependency [SMD] retains similar traits as substance-based addictions and that adolescents are a group particularly at risk. Studies have shown significant positive correlations between SMD and depression, loneliness, and social anxiety. SMD has also shown a significant negative association with self-esteem. Research has yet to explore these relationships within a minority versus majority language comparative context, which is the objective of the thesis. The thesis used cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses (three equally-spaced timepoints over nine-months) incorporating quantitative and qualitative designs. There were 1,709 participants (Welsh/Bilingual-medium schools = 844; English-medium schools = 865) aged 12- to 15-years with a mean age of 13.61 years (standard deviation ±.933). All schools were State-maintained and located within Wales. At timepoint one, five Welsh/Bilingual- and four English-medium schools took part. Two Welsh/Bilingual-medium schools dropped out after timepoint one. SMD analysis (Chapter Four) showed a difference between school types but no difference between Welsh/Bilingual-medium attending first language Welsh- [FLWs] and English-speakers [FLEs]. The suggested reason for the difference between the school types was a marginalization of Welsh/Bilingual-medium FLWs’ and FLEs’ first languages within the social media and school environments, respectively. A difference in self-esteem (Chapter Five), depression, loneliness, and social anxiety (Chapter Six) scores was shown for FLWs and FLEs, also, with FLEs showing the poorer scores. The suggested reason was FLWs benefiting in terms of social identification processes and close affiliation to the Welsh language, culture, and community. Structural equation modeling [SEM] (Chapter Seven) indicated that first language mattered whenever SMD predicted self-esteem, depression, loneliness, and social anxiety. Longitudinal analyses (Chapter Eight) showed no difference in FLWs’ and FLEs’ SMD representation at low, medium and high levels over time, but a greater number of FLEs were represented at low self-esteem levels over time. Qualitative analysis (Chapter Nine) suggested FLWs identified a greater array of technical barriers to using Welsh on social media. In conclusion, the suggestion is an individual’s first language matters regarding self-esteem, depression, loneliness, and social anxiety, but not SMD. However, whenever SMD acts as a predictor variable, an individual’s first language appears to play a pivotal role