Psychological Flexibility, Coronavirus Anxiety, Humor and Social Media Addiction During COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey

Relationships between daily emotional experiences and smartphone addiction among college students: moderated mediating role of gender and mental health problems

Introduction

The theoretical model of smartphone addiction highlights the role of emotional factors in fostering addictive behaviors. However, most research has focused on long-term emotional states and pathologies, often overlooking the immediate effects of daily emotional fluctuations on smartphone usage and their mechanisms.

Methods

Our study employed an online survey and a moderated parallel mediation model to explore how daily emotional experiences influence smartphone addiction among college students. We analyzed the mediating roles of anxiety, stress, and depression, and the moderating effect of gender.

Results

Our findings indicate that daily negative emotional experiences were positively correlated with smartphone addiction, with stress serving as a significant mediator in the relationship between both positive and negative emotional experiences and addiction. Interestingly, positive emotional experiences directly increased smartphone addiction risk among female students, but they also significantly reduced stress and depression, especially pronounced in women. Further analysis indicated that positive emotions primarily mitigate addiction through reducing stress, a pathway especially significant in females.

Discussion

The study not only confirms the substantial impact of emotional experiences on addiction but also deepens our understanding of their mechanisms, underlining the importance of considering the nature of emotional experiences and gender-specific effects in devising prevention and intervention strategies.

Smartphone Addiction Among University Students' During the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Future Anxiety

OBJECTIVE

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related psychological symptoms can lead to smartphone addiction (SPA) risk and other behavioral disorders, thus impacting individuals' mental health and well-being. The present study aims to propose a mediation model to investigate the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and SPA, and the mediating role of future anxiety (FA) during the post-COVID-19 era.

METHODS

An online questionnaire including the Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Dark Future Scale, and the Smartphone Addiction Scale among university students from China, was conducted between September 14 and November 22, 2022. Finally, 1,154 valid questionnaires were collected. The reliability and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that all three scales had good reliability and validity.

RESULTS

Structural Equation Model demonstrated that EI significantly and negatively influenced SPA (β=0.211, p<0.001), university students' FA significantly and positively effected SPA (β=0.315, p<0.001), EI significantly predicted SPA in university students, and FA partially mediated the association between EI and SPA. The mediation effect of FA was 0.110, which accounted for 34.27% of the total effect. Bootstrap results furthermore tested the rigor of the mediating effect.

CONCLUSION

These findings broaden our understanding regarding the relationship between EI and SPA and the mediating role of FA, providing new sights for educators on how to reduce the risk of SPA when confronting the ongoing and possible future pandemics.

Surviving COVID-19: Biopsychosocial Impacts, Death Anxiety, and Coping Strategies

As the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, attempts to contain the spread of the virus took two concurrent forms, including mobility restrictions (aka lockdowns) and the race to produce a vaccine. However, it is quite striking that, amidst both the lockdown and the race to produce a vaccine, the question of how COVID-19 survivors/patients coped with the disease has not received the degree of attention it deserved. To navigate this issue, we employed a sample consisting of 100 COVID-19 survivors; this paper explores the relationship between the biopsychosocial (BPS) impacts of COVID-19, death anxiety, and coping strategies. In this context, the mediating role of death anxiety is placed in the spotlight. The analysis reveals a significant positive association between the BPS impact of COVID-19 and death anxiety and a significant negative association between death anxiety and coping strategies among COVID-19 survivors. Thus, death anxiety mediates the relationship between the BPS impact and the coping strategies that COVID-19 survivors adopt. Given the general recognition of the validity of the BPS model in contemporary medical science and practice, a thorough examination of COVID-19 survivors and their experiences related to surviving is necessary to match the challenges of today, including the increased probability of pandemics.

Social Media, Anxiety and COVID-19 Lockdown Measurement Compliance

The aim of the present research was to analyze the effect of anxiety levels during the COVID-19 pandemic in the use of social media and compliance with lockdown measures during the confinement. A total of 1723 participants (32.1% males and 77.9% females; 32.6 ± 9.2 years) were interviewed by a Spanish version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. From the results obtained, the sample was divided into two 50th percentile groups, a high anxiety group (HAG) and a low anxiety group (LAG). We found how the LAG had lower use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter during confinement. Also, this group presented a higher rate of leaving home during the confinement and higher values in people with whom they had lived with during confinement than high anxiety group. Regardless of the lack of results in the remaining variables, the present study nuances the high levels of anxiety experienced during COVID-19 confinement. The multifactorial analysis of factors related to the perception of anxiety during COVID-19 confinement may be a useful tool to measure multiple social behaviors when examining mental health factors. Thus, explaining and preventing the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present knowledge could be used to determine key intervention factors for reducing the perception of fear and anxiety.

Smartphone addiction risk, technology-related behaviors and attitudes, and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic-related perceived risk of infection, illness fears, acute stress, emotional anxiety, exhaustion, and fatigue, psychological trauma and depressive symptoms, and sustained psychological distress can cause smartphone addiction risk and lead to technology-related cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disorders, thus impacting psychological well-being. Behavioral addiction of smartphone users can result in anxiety symptom severity, psychiatric symptoms, and depressive stress. We carried out a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest throughout June 2022, with search terms including "smartphone addiction + COVID-19" + "stress," "anxiety," "depression," "psychological distress," "screen time," and "fear." As we analyzed only articles published between 2020 and 2022, 288 papers met the eligibility criteria. By excluding sources with similar titles, having unclear findings or unsupported by replication, or displaying inconsistent content, we selected 64, mainly empirical, sources. We used layout algorithms (VOSviewer) and bibliometric mapping (Dimensions) as data visualization tools. Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR), a systematic review and literature review software (Distiller SR), Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), and Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR) were employed as methodological quality assessment tools. As limitations, we analyzed only articles published between 2020 and 2022 in scholarly outlets indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases. The scope of our study also does not advance the inspection of sources covering vulnerable individuals suffering from certain diseases or specific generations. Subsequent analyses should develop on smartphone use and addiction among children and adolescents. Future research should thus investigate problematic smartphone use and addiction across generations Z and Alpha. Attention should be directed to their personality traits and psychopathological symptoms.

Assessing the Relationships between Internet Addiction, Depression, COVID-19-Related Fear, Anxiety, and Suspicion among Graduate Students in Educational Administration: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

This study aims to examine the relationships between Internet addiction, depression, COVID-19-related fear, anxiety, and suspicion in graduate students. A total of 482 students pursuing a master’s degree in educational administration participated in the study, which was designed according to the relational survey model. The data of the study were collected using online questionnaires, and the proposed hypotheses were tested and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the study revealed that COVID-19-related suspicion positively and significantly predicted COVID-19-related fear and anxiety. In this context, the increased suspicion of graduate students due to COVID-19 also increased their fear and COVID-19-related anxiety, and this increased the possibility that they would exhibit depressive behaviors. However, a positive and significant relationship was found between COVID-19-related suspicion and depression. This result confirms that the increased suspicion of the participant students due to COVID-19 led to an increase in their depression scores. SEM results have shown a positive relationship between fear and anxiety related to COVID-19 and Internet addiction, and that the increase in students’ anxiety and fear levels also increases their Internet addiction levels. In addition, the results of the study revealed that depression has a negligible indirect effect on the relationship between COVID-19-related fear, anxiety, and suspicion and Internet addiction. In conclusion, the proposed hypothetical model is confirmed after having examined the relationships among depression, Internet addiction, COVID-19-related fear and anxiety, and suspicion.