Evaluation of the Selfitis Behavior Scale Across Two Persian-Speaking Countries, Iran and Afghanistan: Advanced Psychometric Testing in a Large-Scale Sample

The effect of self-compassion on social media addiction among college students - The mediating role of gratitude: An observational study

In contemporary society, social media pervades every aspect of daily life, offering significant benefits such as enhanced access to information, improved interconnectivity, and fostering community among its users. However, its usage, particularly when excessive, can lead to negative psychological outcomes, including the prevalence of social media addiction (SMA) among adolescents. While extensive research has been conducted on the phenomenon of SMA, there is a notable paucity of studies examining the link between individual levels of self-compassion and susceptibility to SMA. This study aims to investigate the correlation between self-compassion and SMA in college students, while also examining the potential mediating influence of gratitude. The study sampled 1131 college students who engaged in an anonymous online survey. This survey utilized the Chinese translations of the Self-Compassion Scale, Gratitude Questionnaire, and SMA Scale. For data analysis, validated factor analysis was performed using IBM® SPSS® AMOS™ version 23. Correlation analyses were carried out with IBM® SPSS® version 22.0, and the PROCESS macro (Model 4) was employed to assess path and mediation effects. Higher levels of positive self-compassion were found to mitigate the effects of SMA, while elevated levels of negative self-compassion were associated with an increase in such addiction. The study further revealed that gratitude played a partial mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and SMA. Specifically, positive self-compassion can reduce symptoms of SMA by enhancing levels of gratitude, whereas negative self-compassion may worsen these symptoms by diminishing gratitude. Positive self-compassion is instrumental in fostering personal growth among college students, with gratitude serving as a significant mediator in reducing SMA.

A rise in social media use in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: the French validation of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale in a Canadian cohort

INTRODUCTION

Social media use has grown dramatically since its inception in the early 2000s and has further increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Problematic use of social media (PUSM) is a type of behavioural addiction which has generated increasing interest among mental health clinicians and scholars in the last decade. PUSM is associated with multiple psychiatric conditions and is known to interfere with patients' daily functioning. There is no single accepted definition of PUSM, nor means of measuring it, in the literature. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) is a helpful tool for identifying PUSM. This paper aims to validate BSMAS and to translate it from English into French, with the goal of making this clinical screening tool for PUSM available in French-language contexts.

METHOD

This study explored the psychometric validity of the French version of the BSMAS in a sample of 247 adolescents, who were either psychiatric inpatients (the hospitalized group, n = 123) or recruited in local high schools (the community group, n = 124).

RESULTS

The adolescents in the sample reported an increase in their social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase was more pronounced in the hospitalized group. Confirmatory factorial analysis showed an excellent fit, very good internal consistency and established convergent validity for the French version of the BSMAS. A total of 15.4% of the hospitalization group and 6.5% of the community group met the recommended clinical cutoff of 24 on the BSMAS, suggesting problematic use of social media.

CONCLUSIONS

The French version of BSMAS is a psychometrically validated and clinically useful tool to screen for PUSM in adolescents.

The Mediating Role of Selfitis in the Associations between Self-Esteem, Problematic Social Media Use, Problematic Smartphone Use, Body-Self Appearance, and Psychological Distress among Young Ghanaian Adults

Selfie-related activities have become pervasive to the point that they may affect the mental health of people who engage in them. To ascertain this mechanism, this study examined the mediating role of selfitis in the associations between self-esteem, problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, body-self appearance, and psychological distress among young Ghanaian adults. A total of 651 participants completed a questionnaire with measures on self-esteem, body-self appearance, problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, depression, anxiety, stress, coping skills, and selfitis. There were direct associations between all the variables except between self-esteem and selfitis. In addition, selfitis mediated the associations between problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, body-self appearance, and psychological distress except between self-esteem and psychological distress. These findings suggest that selfitis can serve as a pathway by which people who overly engage in problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, and have poor body-self appearance may experience psychological distress. Hence, there is a need for health communicators, school authorities, and opinion leaders to educate young adults on the consequences of the problematic use of technology, especially for selfitis behaviour. Future studies can examine the factors that predict selfitis behaviour among adults.

Disorders due to addictive behaviors: Further issues, debates, and controversies •

Two recent papers in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions by Brand et al. (2022), and Sassover and Weinstein (2022) both make interesting additions to the place of behavioral addictions in the more general addictive behaviors field. This commentary discusses some of the further nuances in the debates surrounding whether problematic engagement in social networking, pornography, and buying/shopping should be considered as possible 'disorders due to addictive behaviors' in the ICD-11. Particular emphasis in this commentary is placed on social network use disorder and its delineation. While there is growing evidence that addictions to sex, pornography, social network sites, exercise, work, and buying/shopping may be genuine disorders among a minority of individuals, none of these behaviors is likely to be included in formal psychiatric manuals in the near future until there is more high-quality data on all research fronts (e.g., epidemiological, neurobiological, psychological, and clinical).

The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale Validity in a Romanian Sample Using Item Response Theory and Network Analysis

The validation of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) in different cultural contexts is contributory in adding to the extant research body on psychometric qualities of the scale. The main purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the BSMAS, based on classical test theory and advanced psychometric testing, namely item response theory (IRT) and network analysis in a Romanian sample of 705 participants (39% males, aged 18-54 years, M = 30.24, SD ± 9.15). Composite reliability and McDonald's omega proved the very good internal consistency of the BSMAS-RO. The CFA highlighted the unifactorial model fitted well and measurement invariance across gender was revealed. Females obtained significantly higher scores on social media addiction (SMA) than males. As for concurrent validity, SMA correlated with social media intensity use, anxious attachment, social anxiety, need to belong, self-esteem, and happiness. IRT analysis proved adequate discrimination and difficulty parameters for all items. The highest discrimination was registered by salience criterion and the highest difficulty by conflict, withdrawal, and mood modification criteria. Relapse criterion had the lowest values of both parameters. Network analysis revealed that salience and withdrawal criteria had the highest indicators of centrality and relapse the lowest. Our findings revealed that the most relevant criteria to the diagnosis of SMA in Romanian people are salience, conflict, withdrawal, and mood modification. The robust psychometric properties of the BSMAS-RO provide health professionals a valid instrument for assessing SMA. Programs to prevent SMA must focus on dispositional traits as AATT, social anxiety, respectively unsatisfied need to belong, and promoting the ability to initiate and maintain rewarding social relationships.

Validation of Self-Reported Smartphone Usage Against Objectively-Measured Smartphone Usage in Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents and Young Adults

OBJECTIVE

This study evaluated the validity of self-reported smartphone usage data against objectively-measured smartphone usage data by directly tracking the activities in the participants' smartphone among Chinese adolescents and young adults in Hong Kong.

METHODS

A total of 187 participants were recruited (mean age 19.4, 71.7% female) between 2017 and 2018. A smartphone usage tracking app was installed on all participants' smartphone for 7 consecutive days. After the 7-day monitoring period, they completed a selfadministered questionnaire on smartphone usage habits.

RESULTS

Although the correlation between self-reported and objectively-measured total smartphone usage time was insignificant (ρ=-0.10, p=0.18), in three out of the four usage domains were positively and significantly correlated, namely social network (ρ=0.21, p=0.005), instant messaging (ρ=0.27, p<0.001), and games (ρ=0.64, p<0.001). Participants' self-report of the total time spent on smartphones exceeded the objective data by around 760 min per week (self-reported 1,930.3 min/wk vs. objectively-measured 1,170.7 min/wk, p<0.001). Most of the over-reporting was contributed by the web browsing domain (self-reported 447.8 min/wk vs. objectively-measured 33.3 min/wk, p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Our results showed large discrepancies between self-reported smartphone and objectively-measured smartphone usage except for self-reported usage on game apps.

Relationship between internet addiction and sleep disturbance in high school students: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The increase in the number of Internet users has increased Internet dependence worldwide. In adolescents, this dependence may interfere with sleep, which is important for the development of psychophysiological capabilities. However, few large-scale surveys have described the relationship between Internet addiction (IA) and sleep disturbance using standardized questionnaires. We conducted a survey in one prefecture in Japan to determine the relationship between sleep disturbance and IA in adolescents based on the categories of the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ).

METHODS

In 2016, high school students (N = 10,405, age range: 15-16 years) in all 54 daytime high schools in the selected prefecture were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. Participants with scores > 5.5 points on the Japanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were defined as having a sleep disturbance. IA was evaluated using the YDQ: Participants with five to eight YDQ items present were classified as having IA; those with three or four items present were classified as "at risk of IA"; and those with two or less YDQ items were classified as "non-IA". Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed with sleep disturbance as the dependent variable, IA as the explanatory variable, and adjustments for eight other variables.

RESULTS

High YDQ scores were associated with a high prevalence of sleep disturbance in boys and girls. These findings persisted after controlling for other factors in the multiple regression model.

CONCLUSIONS

Among Japanese adolescents, there was a significant independent relationship between IA and sleep disturbance.

Selfitis Behavior: Assessing the Italian Version of the Selfitis Behavior Scale and Its Mediating Role in the Relationship of Dark Traits with Social Media Addiction

Research on selfie-related behavior has recently flourished. The present study expands theoretical and empirical work on phenomenon by assessing the psychometric properties of the Selfitis Behavior Scale among an Italian sample and by examining its unexplored mediating role in the relationships between dark triad traits and social media addiction. A total of 490 participants (53.1% females) completed a self-report survey including socio-demographics, the Selfitis Behavior Scale (SBS), the Short Dark Triad Scale (SD3), and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS). Results showed the SBS had a five-factor structure with good psychometrics properties in terms of reliability coefficients and measurement invariance across gender. In addition, findings from the path model supported the mediating role of selfitis behavior in the relationships of narcissism and psychopathy with social media addiction. Machiavellianism was found to be unrelated to selfitis behavior and social media addiction. The model shed light into the previous inconsistent findings on the associations between dark triad traits and social media addiction by taking into account the key role of selfitis behavior as an underlying mechanism. The findings may explain individual differences in personality traits associated with co-dependence (i.e., the combination of the dependence on self and others and social media addiction).