A two-generation study: The transmission of attachment and young adults' depression, anxiety, and social media addiction

Adult attachment, social anxiety, and problematic social media use: A meta-analysis and meta-analytic structural equation model

The relationship between adult attachment (anxious attachment and avoidant attachment) and problematic social media use is controversial and contradictory. Hence, the present study clarified the relationship between adult attachment dimensions and problematic social media use through meta-analysis. To better explain the relationship, this study also established meta-analytic structural equation modeling to examine the mediating role of social anxiety in the relationship. This study used CMA and R software for data analysis. Forty-five effect sizes were included in the study, including 11,746 individuals. Results showed that anxious attachment was strongly correlated with problematic social media use (r = 0.319, 95 %CI[0.271, 0.366]), whereas avoidant attachment was weakly correlated with problematic social media use (r = 0.091, 95 %CI[0.011,0.170]). Moderating effects showed that the relationship between anxious attachment and problematic social media use was moderated by the measurement instrument. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling showed that anxious attachment had a significant positive effect on PSMU through social anxiety, anxious attachment had a significant positive effect on PSMU through social anxiety. This study clarifies inconsistencies in the existing literature through meta-analysis, providing reliable conclusions and novel perspectives. It assists clinical practitioners in developing tailored treatment programs for practical interventions. It is suggested that treatment for problematic social media use requires attention to individuals with insecure adult attachment and social anxiety. For individuals with high anxious attachment and social anxiety, it is essential to help them manage their social media use effectively and reduce their dependence on it. Concurrently, interventions for attachment avoidant individuals should focus on enhancing their social self-confidence to reduce the influence of social anxiety on their social media use.

Mental health in the virtual world: Are we ready for the metaverse era?

The advent of the metaverse, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, is an undeniable issue that health care scientists need to update. It influences all fields of knowledge, interpersonal relationships, and health. Regarding mental health since the post-coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, it is necessary to consider and understand the potential, possibilities, weaknesses, and consequences arising from and provided by this new scenario. Due to the increasing need for mental health monitoring and care, mental health treatments require in-depth training and preparation to achieve the maximum use of the metaverse advantages and possibilities. Currently, very little is known about the effectiveness of remote mental health treatment, but it is certainly suggested that accessibility and the characteristics associated with the use of metaverse technologies may represent new horizons for accessibility and approach tools, as long as more studies are carried out and more evidence is collected to develop accurate guidelines, safe training, solve ethical concerns, and overcome limitations.

Testing, revision and application of the social anxiety scale for Chinese social media users

This study aims to modify the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU) to make it more suitable for assessing social anxiety among Chinese social media users, taking into account the unique cultural nuances and social media usage patterns in China. Consequently, a systematic approach was adopted, involving three distinct studies. Study 1 involved translating the English scale into Chinese, conducting interviews with Chinese social media users, and subsequently revising the scale items based on the interview data to ensure cultural appropriateness. Study 2 employed an online survey to collect data and examine the reliability and construct validity of the revised scale, including a two-phase approach: an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with 500 participants to identify the underlying factor structure, and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 408 participants was used to cross-validate the results. Thus far, this study has developed a social anxiety scale for Chinese mobile social media users (SAS-CMSMU) consisted of 11 items on three factors: Interaction Anxiety, Privacy Concern Anxiety, and Shared Content Anxiety. Study 3 (N = 1,006) applied the SAS-CMSMU to assess social anxiety among Wechat users. The results indicated that participants showed a high level of overall social anxiety (M = 3.646 > 3). Specifically, Privacy Anxiety was the most pronounced, followed by Shared Content Anxiety and Interaction Anxiety. Moreover, significant statistical differences in social anxiety levels were found among WeChat users across gender, age, education, income, and relationship status.

A two-generation study of attachment in mothers and their young adult offspring: Latent classes of attachment and associations with anxiety and depression

BACKGROUND

Evidence supports the conceptualization of adult attachment as existing along a continuum of attachment security and insecurity; however, ongoing debates persist regarding the use of categorical versus continuous approaches to studying attachment. Attachment data collected from a large community sample of mothers and their offspring in young adulthood were used to examine i) latent classes of adult attachment, ii) associations between mother and offspring attachment, iii) the relationship between adult attachment and mental health symptoms.

METHODS

Mothers and offspring were each administered the Attachment Style Questionnaire when offspring were aged 21-years. Latent class analyses (LCA) were performed to examine response patterns across ASQ items. Associations between mothers' and offspring attachment, and correlations between attachment domains and depression/anxiety subscales were examined.

RESULTS

LCA identified four latent classes across a continuum of secure and insecure attachment rather than four distinct adult attachment styles. Anxious attachment subscales correlated strongly with depression/anxiety symptoms in both cohorts. Mothers' attachment was significantly but weakly correlated with their young adult offspring attachment.

LIMITATIONS

Attachment was measured at one time point and as such, a causal maternal-offspring attachment relationship could not be established.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support a dimensional view of attachment security and insecurity over a four-category model of adult attachment. Attachment correlated with anxiety and depressive symptoms and highlights the importance of considering adult attachment when addressing mental health. There was limited evidence of a relationship between middle aged mothers and their offspring in young adulthood, suggesting other factors influence attachment in adulthood.

Association between problematic social networking use and anxiety symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis

A growing number of studies have reported that problematic social networking use (PSNU) is strongly associated with anxiety symptoms. However, due to the presence of multiple anxiety subtypes, existing research findings on the extent of this association vary widely, leading to a lack of consensus. The current meta-analysis aimed to summarize studies exploring the relationship between PSNU levels and anxiety symptoms, including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, attachment anxiety, and fear of missing out. 209 studies with a total of 172 articles were included in the meta-analysis, involving 252,337 participants from 28 countries. The results showed a moderately positive association between PSNU and generalized anxiety (GA), social anxiety (SA), attachment anxiety (AA), and fear of missing out (FoMO) respectively (GA: r = 0.388, 95% CI [0.362, 0.413]; SA: r = 0.437, 95% CI [0.395, 0.478]; AA: r = 0.345, 95% CI [0.286, 0.402]; FoMO: r = 0.496, 95% CI [0.461, 0.529]), and there were different regulatory factors between PSNU and different anxiety subtypes. This study provides the first comprehensive estimate of the association of PSNU with multiple anxiety subtypes, which vary by time of measurement, region, gender, and measurement tool.

Effect and usability of the use of twitter as a complementary teaching tool in different subjects of nursing studies: Educational intervention study

BACKGROUND

Some social networks, such as Twitter (now known as X), have proven to be very useful for sharing and discussing multiple aspects related to the healthcare field. However, the use of Twitter as a method of communication and knowledge transfer to nursing students has been limited.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the usability and effect of an educational intervention for monitoring additional content, through the social network Twitter, of various subjects of nursing studies (clinical nursing, community nursing, and nursing fundamentals).

DESIGN

An exploratory experimental study was carried out through an educational intervention during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years.

SETTINGS

Faculty of Nursing at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Participants were 308 students.

METHODS

Students used Twitter to receive tweets about news or links to subject-related content. They also completed a pre-post questionnaire.

RESULTS

A high degree of visualization and interaction of the study's Twitter account stands out, mainly in the subject clinical nursing. In relation to usability, the participants stated that they strongly agreed with aspects such as "thinking that it was easy to use the account" (59.4 %) as well as "imagining that the majority of colleagues would learn very quickly to use said account" (46.5 %). Students who used the account at least once a day obtained higher scores on the post-study knowledge questionnaire than those who used it less than once a day (p < 0.05), or those who used it 2 or 3 times during the study (p = 0.010).

CONCLUSIONS

The group of participants who used the Twitter account at least once a day stated that using the account was easy and that they would like to use it more frequently. Likewise, greater use of this tool was associated with a better score on a post-study knowledge questionnaire.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Scale of Effects of Social Media on Eating Behaviour and research of its influencing factors

BACKGROUND

Social media has become an indispensable part of contemporary young people's lives, and the influence of social media on college students' eating and other health-related behaviors has become increasingly prominent. However, there is no assessment tool to determine the effects of social media on Chinese college students' eating behavior. This study aims to translate the Scale of Effects of Social Media on Eating Behaviour (SESMEB) into Chinese. Its applicability to Chinese college students was examined through reliability and validity indexes, and the influencing factors of SESMEB were explored.

METHODS

The questionnaire survey included 2374 Chinese college students. The Brislin translation model was used to translate the original scale into Chinese. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to test the construct validity of the scale, and the content validity of the scale was assessed through the content validity index. The internal consistency of the scale was assessed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient, McDonald's Omega coefficient, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability. Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis was performed to identify potential influences on the effects of social media on eating behavior.

RESULTS

EFA supported the one-factor structure, and the factor loadings of each item on this dimension were higher than 0.40. CFA showed good model fitness indexes. The content validity index of the scale was 0.94. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and McDonald's Omega coefficient for the scale were 0.964, the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.953, and the test-retest reliability was 0.849. Gender, education, major, frequency of social media use, online sexual objectification experiences, fear of negative evaluations, and physical appearance perfectionism explained 73.8% of the variance in the effects of social media on eating behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version of the SESMEB has good psychometric properties and is a valid measurement tool for assessing the effects of social media on college students' eating behavior. Subjects who were female, highly educated, non-medical, had frequent social media use, online sexual objectification experiences, fear of negative evaluations, and physical appearance perfectionism used social media to have a higher impact on eating behavior.

Mediating effects of attention problems on the link between parenting style and internet gaming disorder in adolescents

Background

Positive and negative parenting styles as well as psychiatric comorbidities including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been associated with internet gaming disorder (IGD) in children and adolescents. We hypothesized that ADHD and parenting style would be associated with IGD in adolescents. In addition, psychological status could mediate the link between parenting style and the severity of IGD.

Methods

A total of 256 adolescents with IGD and 211 healthy internet game players and their mothers participated in the current study. Demographic data, gaming patterns, and psychological status including ADHD were recorded for all adolescents. The parenting style of each adolescent's mother was assessed using the Maternal Behavior Research Instrument (Korean version).

Results

There were significant differences in the internet game play patterns, psychological status, and parenting styles between the IGD group and healthy internet game players. In the hierarchical logistic regression analysis, higher ADHD scores, less affective parenting styles, and less autonomous parenting styles, were significant predictors of IGD. In the mediation test, the ADHD score was found to mediate the association between affective and autonomous parenting styles and the severity of IGD.

Conclusion

Attention problems could directly and indirectly mediate the relationship between positive parenting styles and the severity of IGD. Our findings have the potential to aid in the development of treatment plans for IGD and ADHD as well as to contribute to the development of educational resources regarding parenting styles.

Effectiveness of web-based mindfulness program on college students with social network addiction

AIMS

In this study a web-based mindfulness cultivation program was implemented to investigate its effectiveness on the addiction symptoms and negative emotions of college students with social network addiction.

METHODS

A total of 66 students were recruited and randomly divided into the intervention group or the control group. Participants in the intervention group received a web-based mindfulness cultivation program including the group training and self-cultivating. The primary outcome was addiction level, and the secondary outcome was anxiety, depression and perceived stress. Repeated measures analysis of variance were utilized to analyze the differences between the control and intervention group over the course of the intervention and the follow-up.

RESULTS

There were significant interaction effects on addiction level (F = 39.39, P < .00), anxiety (F = 31.17, P < .00), depression (F = 37.93, P < .00) and perceived stress (F = 22.04, P < .00).

CONCLUSION

A web-based mindfulness cultivation program could improve the addiction level and negative emotions of college students with social network addiction.

A comprehensive review on emerging trends in the dynamic evolution of digital addiction and depression

Introduction

Using digital addiction as an umbrella term to cover any type of addictions to digital technologies such as the internet, smartphones, social media, or video games, the current study aimed to reveal the intellectual structure and evolution of research addressing digital addiction-depression relationship.

Methods

The study combined bibliometric and science mapping analysis methods for this purpose. Data for the study was gathered from Web of Science Core Collection after a comprehensive process of data search/extraction, and 241 articles were included in the final data set. A period-based, comparative science mapping analysis was performed using the SciMAT software.

Results

The analysis of data over three periods, Period 1 (1983-2016), Period 2 (2017-2019), and Period 3 (2020-2022) showed that internet addiction was the most significant theme across all three periods, which was followed by social media addiction. Depression, which emerged as a significant theme during Period 1, was later covered under anxiety disorder theme. Research interest was mostly on factors related to both addiction and depression such as cognitive distortion, insomnia, loneliness, self-esteem, social support, alexithymia, as well as cybervictimization or academic performance.

Discussion

The results suggested that much research is warranted on the digital addiction-depression relationship in different age cohorts, especially children and elderly. Similarly, the current analysis showed that this line of research particularly focused on internet, gaming and social media addiction, and evidence with regard to other types of digital addiction or related compulsive behaviors was almost absent. In addition, research was mostly inclined to understanding cause-effect relationships, which is significant, but preventive strategies seemed to be barely addressed. Likewise, the smartphone addiction-depression relationship arguably garnered less research interest, so future research would contribute to the field in this respect.

The educational use of social networking sites among medical and health sciences students: a cross campus interventional study

BACKGROUND

In recent years, social networking sites (SNSs) have evolved beyond connection and networking to become a powerful instructional tool. There is still a dearth of knowledge on the professional use of SNSs for education particularly among students from diverse backgrounds. This study examined the extent and pattern of SNSs usage for education across six institutions and then conducted an interventional workshop to fortify and regulate the educational use of SNSs.

METHODS

This multicenter study was done in two phases. In the first phase, an online cross-sectional survey using a validated inventory was administered to determine the prevalence, extent, and preferences of SNSs usage by undergraduate students in medicine, health sciences and dentistry across five centers. Later, the second phase of the study was undertaken in a 75-min guided live workshop about the appropriate use of SNSs in academia. Additionally, pre- and post-test surveys were conducted to assess the impact and outcome of workshop.

RESULTS

Of the 1722 respondents, 1553 (90%) reported using SNSs with the frequency of once a month to three to five times per day for education and to stay in touch with others. Most students agreed with the benefits of SNSs for education mainly in terms of information gathering, networking and collaboration. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest were noted as the most preferred SNSs for education. Nevertheless, 63% perceived that proper instruction was required for the efficient use of SNSs. Following the guided workshop, there was a significant improvement in web technology understanding, digital professionalism, skills and knowledge on the productive use of SNSs. Students rated the efficient for conceptual learning, connection to community practice, e-portfolio, and collaborative learning as the top four major teaching and learning strategies, respectively, in the post-workshop survey.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrates that SNSs can be used as learning tools in medical education. However, SNSs usage should be regulated and guided for a more collegial and coherent learning climate in the digital realm. We urge medical educators to integrate SNSs into their courses for a technologically advanced and impactful curriculum.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of social anxiety scale for social media users and cross-sectional investigation into this disorder among college students

BACKGROUND

Recent years have seen an increased incidence of social anxiety due to increasing intensive use of social media, especially among young adults.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to translate the original English version of Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU) into Chinese, examine its applicability among Chinese College students via reliability and validity indexes, and investigate the influencing factors contributing to SAS-SMU.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among a cohort of 1307 Chinese college students, 486 males and 821 females, aged 20.75 ± 3.13 years old. The original version of SAS-SMU was translated into Chinese using the backward and forward translation procedure. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor (CFA) analysis were used for construction of underlying factor structure. Criterion-related validity was assessed using Interaction anxiousness scale (IAS) and the "extraversion" domain of Eysenck Personality Short Scale (EPQ-R-S). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was computed for evaluation of internal consistency. A multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis was conducted for determining the potential correlates of SMU-related social anxiety.

RESULTS

The final Chinese version of SAS-SMU had 21 items. Item analysis, exploratory factor, EFA, and CFA jointly supported a three-factor structure of the translated version, defined as social recognition anxiety, interaction anxiety, and privacy concern anxiety, respectively. The three-factor structure of this scale showed configural, metric, scalar measurement invariance across gender. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale and its three subscales were 0.96, 0.93, 0.94, and 0.91, respectively. The mean SAS-SMU overall score for each college student was 51.63 ± 16.32, with 21.64 ± 7.24 (recognition anxiety), 17.10 ± 6.30 (interaction anxiety), 12.90 ± 4.61 (privacy concern anxiety) for each subscale, respectively. IAS score, mobile phone addiction index (MPAI) score, EPQ-E score, time spent on social media per week, relationship with parents, childhood life status, whether being an only child, and cyber bullying experience can explain 51.1% of the variance of SMU related social anxiety.

CONCLUSION

Based on the data, the Chinese version of SAS-SMU has shown to be satisfactory in psychometric properties. Subjects prone to interaction anxiousness, addictive smartphone use, extraversion personality trait, bad relationship with parents, unfortunate childhood life, only-child status, and having cyberbullying experience tend to have a higher level of SMU related social anxiety.