Use of the Smartphone and Self-Concept in University Students According to the Gender Variable

Associations between problem technology use, life stress, and self-esteem among high school students

BACKGROUND

Adolescence is a critical period for development, with many risk factors resulting in long-term health consequences, particularly regarding mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between problem technology use, life stress, and self-esteem in a representative sample of adolescents residing in Ontario, Canada.

METHODS

Self-reported data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of 4,748 students (57.9% females) in grades 9 to 12 (mean age: 15.9 ± 1.3 years) who participated in the 2019 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. Problem technology use was measured using the 6-item Short Problem Internet Use Test, life stress was assessed using an item from the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey and self-esteem was assessed using a global measure from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Ordinal logistic regression models were adjusted for age, sex, ethnoracial background, subjective socioeconomic status, body mass index z-score, tobacco cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and cannabis use.

RESULTS

We found that 18.3% of participants reported symptoms of moderate-to-high problem technology use, although symptoms were more common in females than males (22% vs. 14.7%, respectively). Moderate-to-high problem technology use was associated with 2.04 (95% CI: 1.77-2.35) times higher odds of reporting high life stress and 2.08 (95% CI: 1.76-2.45) times higher odds of reporting low self-esteem compared to all other response options.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study show that problem technology use is strongly associated with higher life stress and lower self-esteem in adolescents. This study supports the importance of developing and implementing effective strategies that help to mitigate the adverse effects of problem technology use on adolescent mental health.

Bullying and Self-Concept, Factors Affecting the Mental Health of School Adolescents

Bullying is an aggressive and repetitive behavior, where one person or several people physically, socially, or emotionally harm a vulnerable person and provokean imbalance of power in a school setting. Several factors such as age, sex, school performance, psychological factors, and ethnicity have been associated with bullying and more are being sought. Thus, the objectives of this study were as follows: (1) analyze the differences in bullying (victimization and aggression) and self-concept (academic, social, emotional, family, and physical) with respect to sex, school location, and educational level among Spanish adolescents; (2) explore the associations of bullying and self-concept with these sociodemographic dimensions. A cross-sectional study was designed with a total of 1155 participants (between 12 and 18 years old); there were 48.8% boys and 51.2% girls, where 75.9% studied compulsory secondary education (CSE) and 24.1% Baccalaureate, and 31.9% were students from rural schools and 68.1% were from urban schools. Medium and inverse correlations were shown between victimization and self-concept at the general level, for both sexes, both types of school, and both educational stages. For the aggression dimension, the correlations with self-concept were inverse at the general level (low), in girls (low), in rural students (medium), and in compulsory secondary education students (medium). For academic self-concept and family self-concept, the associations were medium and inverse with bullying in all variables. For emotional self-concept the correlation with bullying was direct and medium in all variables; in physical self-concept, the correlations with bullying were inverse in almost all variables except in boys. Self-concept may be a protective factor for bullying and interventions should aim at adolescents building a positive multidimensional self-concept that prevents and protects them from bullying either as aggressor or victim.

Self-Concept as a Mediator of the Relation Between University Students' Resilience and Academic Achievement

Academic achievement is a factor of interest in both psychology and education. Determining which factors have a negative or positive influence on academic performance has produced different investigations. The present study focuses on analyzing the relationship between resilience, emotional intelligence, self-concept and the academic achievement of university students. For this purpose, different self-report tools were administered to a sample of 1,020 university students from Southern Spain. The Structural Equation-based mediational analysis suggests that there is no direct relationship between resilience and academic achievement, nor between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. Likewise, self-concept is positioned as a mediating factor in the relationship between resilience and academic achievement. The findings indicate that university students who exhibit high levels of resilience tend to cope better with difficult moments and understand and value the effort required and invested in study time. This study supports positive beliefs and behaviors for better academic achievement.

Network connectivity between benevolent childhood experiences and uncertainty stress among Chinese university students

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) and uncertainty stress among Chinese university students by network analysis.

METHODS

A total of 1,830 university students from three Chinese cities were recruited. Respondents' BCEs and uncertainty stress were self-reported using online questionnaire. The structure of the BCEs-uncertainty stress and related centrality indicators were examined for this sample.

RESULTS

The overall network model showed that "no ways to suit the important changes in life" was the most influential, followed by "all things are not going well," "feel that there is nothing to do," and "worry about the future." And in this network, the most influential bridge symptom was "having a positive self-concept."

CONCLUSION

The central symptoms of the BCEs-uncertainty stress network should be prioritized as targets in interventions and prevention efforts to reduce uncertainty stress among Chinese university students. Improving university students' positive self-concept is important to alleviate the level of uncertainty stress among Chinese university students.

Problematic Smartphone Use in Spanish and Italian University Students

Sustainable education requires the proper usage of technological devices. Among these is the smartphone, which is used by millions of young people around the world in today’s society. The objective of this study was to understand the smartphone usage profile of Spanish and Italian university students. It also aimed to identify possible problematic uses, and the differences in smartphone use (or abuse) between the participating subjects. The study was descriptive and comparative, with the intentional sampling of N = 1412 subjects studying at the education faculties of the University of Alicante (UA) and the Suor Orsola Benincasa University (UNISOB). A previously-validated questionnaire with 27 items was employed during the 2019–20 academic year. The data was analysed using the SPSS 25 programme. Descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out. The results obtained after the analysis of the data indicated that, of the four possible user types—occasional, habitual, at risk, and problematic—more than half of the sample identified themselves as habitual users. It can be concluded that there are significant differences between the universities: the UA students exhibited more problematic use than the UNISOB students. It is therefore necessary to prepare training programmes that are designed to avert problematic behaviours related to smartphone use.

Analysis of Self-Concept in Adolescents before and during COVID-19 Lockdown: Differences by Gender and Sports Activity

An appeal has been issued to the scientific community to investigate physical, mental and emotional states, and pro-social behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this study aims to investigate adolescents’ self-concept before and during a lockdown period in relation to gender and type/amount of physical activity or sports. The pre-lockdown sample of 366 adolescents were aged 13–17 years (M = 15.51 ± 0.65), of whom 192 (52.5%) were females and 174 (47.5%) were males. During the lockdown, the age range of the sample was 13–17 years (M = 14.57 ± 1.47), of whom 82 (60.3%) were females, and 54 (39.7%) were males. The Form-5 Self-concept Questionnaire (AF-5) was used to measure adolescents’ self-concept. There was a reduction in adolescents’ overall self-concept during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was positively associated with emotional well-being, with family and peers being essential factors in the development of an appropriate self-concept. Furthermore, girls’ self-concept, especially academic self-concept, was higher than that of boys during the lockdown. However, both physical and emotional self-concept were higher for boys than girls before the COVID-19 lockdown, although no differences were found during the lockdown. The findings reveal that physical activity was positively correlated to self-concept before and during the COVID-19 lockdown.