Search Results
You are looking at 61 - 70 of 97 items for
- Author or Editor: Mark Griffiths x
- Refine by Access: All Content x
Background and aims
Vulnerability to stress appears to be a potential predisposing factor for developing specific internet-use disorders, such as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). Studies investigating the protective effect of psychological resilience against the impact of perceived stress on IGD and weekly gameplay have yet to be reported in the existing literature. The aim of this study was to examine the potential moderating relationships between perceived stress and online gaming (more specifically operationalized as IGD and weekly gameplay) with psychological resilience.
Methods
An online survey was administered to 605 participants (males = 82%, M age = 24.01 years, SD age = 6.11). A multivariate multiple regression model was applied to test for the possible contribution of perceived stress and psychological resilience to weekly gameplay and IGD.
Results
Perceived stress was associated with higher scores of IGD, whereas psychological resilience was related to lower scores of IGD. In addition, the combination of having higher perceived stress and lower level of psychological resilience was associated with a particularly high hours of gameplay per week.
Discussion and conclusions
These findings further support the importance of personal traits (perceived stress and psychological resilience) in online gaming (IGD severity and weekly gameplay), and also emphasize the unique moderating relationship between perceived stress and weekly gameplay with lack of resilience. Enhancing psychological resilience to decrease the likelihood of online gamers who experience higher level of stress from spending more hours per week gaming is recommended.
Background and aims
Gaming disorder was recently recognized as a mental health disorder by the World Health Organization and included in the International Classification of Diseases. Extensive research has been conducted with regard to psychosocial correlates and comorbidity, less so for the developmental mechanisms and the processes leading to the disorder. The association between family factors, personality traits, and gaming has been studied independently but not in combination. To fill this gap in knowledge, this study examined (a) the association between parental acceptance–rejection theory and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and (b) the mediating and moderating effect of core self-evaluations (CSE), a personality construct, on the aforementioned variables.
Methods
The study was quantitative and involved young adults members of online gaming communities (N = 225).
Results
The results showed that parental rejection is associated with the occurrence of IGD, only through the mediating effect of CSE. The moderation model was not confirmed.
Discussion
Findings bridge early emotional deficits with CSE personality traits and IGD, based on two widely acknowledged theoretical frameworks. In addition, they highlight the importance of the father’s role in upbringing.
Conclusions
These frameworks combine cognitive and attachment perspectives and a process-oriented approach to the development and maintenance of IGD. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to (a) the mechanisms leading to the disorder and (b) providing an evidence base for therapeutic interventions for IGD to go beyond abstinence and include self-esteem enhancement and efficacy contingencies. Directions for future research are also provided in this study.
Background and aims
Chasing refers to continued gambling in an attempt to recoup previous losses and is one of the diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder. However, research on the topic is still in its infancy. This study investigated whether chasing behavior mediates the relationship between time perspective and gambling severity.
Methods
Non-problem gamblers (N = 26) and problem gamblers (N = 66) with the same demographic features (age and gender) were compared on the Consideration of Future Consequences and a computerized task assessing chasing. The Italian South Oaks Gambling Screen was used to discriminate participants in terms of gambling severity.
Results
Significant correlations were found relating to gambling severity, chasing, and time perspective. More specifically, the results showed that problem gamblers reported more chasing and a foreshortened time horizon. Chasers, compared to non-chasers, were found to be more oriented to the present. Regression analysis showed that male gender, present-oriented time perspective, and chasing were good predictors of gambling severity. Finally, to clarify if present orientation was on the path from chasing to gambling severity or if chasing was the mediator of the impact of present orientation on gambling severity, a path analysis was performed. The results indicated that present orientation had a direct effect on gambling severity and mediated the relationship between chasing and gambling involvement.
Conclusion
The findings support the exacerbating role of chasing in gambling disorder and for the first time show the relationship of time perspective, chasing, and gambling severity among adults.
Background and aims
Social media use has become increasingly popular among Internet users. Given the widespread use of social media on smartphones, there is an increasing need for research examining the impact of the use of such technologies on sexual relationships and their constructs such as intimacy, satisfaction, and sexual function. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism why social media addiction impacts on sexual distress. This study investigated whether two constructs (intimacy and perceived social support) were mediators in the association of social media addiction and sexual distress among married women.
Methods
A prospective study was conducted where all participants (N = 938; mean age = 36.5 years) completed the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale to assess social media addiction, the Female Sexual Distress Scale – Revised to assess sexual distress, the Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale to assess intimacy, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support to assess perceived social support.
Results
The results showed that social media addiction had direct and indirect (via intimacy and perceived social support) effects on sexual function and sexual distress.
Discussion and conclusions
The findings of this study facilitate a better understanding of how problematic engaging to social media can affect couples’ intimacy, perceived social support, and constructs of sexual function. Consequently, sexual counseling should be considered an essential element for assessing individual behaviors in the context of social media use.
Background and aims
Theoretical models of morbid exercise behavior (MEB) suggest that it may emerge as a result of complex interactions between a range of psychosocial factors. However, in spite of fitness-related self-conscious emotions involving such factors, their relationship with the risk of MEB has never been investigated. Consequently, this study had two objectives. First, to explore the relationship that fitness-related self-conscious emotions have with (a) symptoms reflecting MEB as assessed by the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) and the Exercise Dependence Scale-Revised (EDS-R) and (b) exercise frequency. Second, to examine whether these relationships might vary according to disordered eating symptoms.
Methods
A sample of 646 undergraduate students (59% males; M age = 21.25; SD age = 2.94) completed a self-reported questionnaire.
Results
After controlling for age, sex, and disordered eating symptoms, it was found that shame, hubristic pride, and authentic pride positively explained MEB; for their part, guilt (negatively) and authentic pride (positively) explained exercise frequency. The positive relationships between pride and MEB were weaker (in the case of the hubristic facet) or stronger (in the case of the authentic facet) under higher levels of disordered eating symptoms. The independent variables explained 29% (EAI), 28% (EDS-R), and 27% (exercise frequency) of the variance in dependent variables.
Discussion
Tempering fitness-related emotions of shame, guilt, hubristic pride, and authentic pride may contribute to healthier exercise behavior.
Abstract
Background
During the past three decades, research interest in work addiction has increased significantly. Most definitions concerning work addiction have specifically contained personality-related elements. However, the results of empirical studies concerning personality and work addiction are both few and mixed. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of personality in the background of work addiction.
Methods
The present study systematically reviewed and empirically carried out a meta-analysis on all the published studies examining the association between personality variables and work addiction (n = 28).
Results
The results of the meta-analysis indicated that perfectionism, global and performance-based self-esteem, and negative affect had the strongest and most robust associations as personality risk factors of work addiction. Among the Big Five traits, extraversion, conscientiousness, and intellect/imaginations showed positive relationships with work addiction. However, these associations were weak.
Conclusions
Based on the meta-analysis, personality appears to explain only a small amount of the variance of work addiction and further studies are needed to assess the interaction between individual and environmental factors.
Abstract
Background and aims
The present study aimed to synthesize existing quantitative evidence on the relationship between problematic smartphone use (PSU) and academic achievement with a focus on quantifying its magnitude and examining its potential moderators.
Methods
Eligible studies were searched for up to February 10, 2023 in six different databases (i.e., MEDLINE, Current Contents Connect, PsycINFO, Web of Science, SciELO, and Dissertations & Theses Global). Studies were considered eligible if they provided information derived from self-report instruments that allowed statistical calculation of the relationship between PSU and academic achievement. Pooled effect sizes (r) were computed using a random-effects model. Meta-regressions were conducted to test the influence of study-level moderators on the relationship of interest. Influence analyses and a three-parameter selection model (3PSM) were conducted to examine the robustness of the results and publication bias, respectively.
Results
A total of 33 effect sizes from 29 studies (n = 48,490) were retrieved. Results showed a small effect size (r = −0.110), which tended to be larger in samples consisting of students from elementary and middle schools.
Discussion and Conclusions
Findings from the present study contribute to the understanding of a potential determinant of decreased academic achievement by providing evidence that PSU may be one of them.
Abstract
In August of 2021, China imposed severe restrictions on children’s online gaming time. We argue that such a policy may seem useful on the surface but does not reflect the current evidence concerning prevention of disordered gaming. Videogame play is normal for children worldwide, and like other leisure activities can lead to benefits for the majority and problems for a minority. Problematic or disordered play results from the interaction of multiple risk factors that are not addressed by draconian policy measures. Identifying these factors through stakeholder-engaged research and current evidence will be much more likely to succeed in preventing disordered gaming and promoting youth wellbeing.
Abstract
Background
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted aspects of human life globally. Playing videogames has been encouraged by several organizations to help individuals cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictive measures. This longitudinal study was the first to examine gaming in the context of the pandemic and its association with depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Methods
The sample comprised 1,778 children and adolescents (50.7% male) who were part of the Project of School Mental Health in Southwest China. Data were collected at two-time intervals: before the COVID-19 pandemic (October to November 2019 – [T1]) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (April to May 2020 – [T2]). Data were collected on perceived COVID-19 impacts, videogame use, Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Cross-lagged panel models were computed to examine longitudinal relationships.
Results
The results indicated that both videogame use and IGD increased significantly for adolescents at T2. The cross-lagged panel model results suggested that depressive and anxiety symptoms at T1 positively predicted IGD and videogame use at T2 (especially for boys), but not inversely. Perceived COVID-19 impacts mediated the relationship between depressive and anxiety symptoms at T1 and IGD at T2.
Conclusion
Children and adolescents both increased videogame use at T2, but only adolescents significantly increased IGD severity at T2. The findings supported the compensatory hypothesis, and are consistent with the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model as individual responses to COVID-19 may function as a mediator between personal predisposing variables and IGD.
Abstract
Background and aims: The aim of the present systematic review was to identify psychometric tools developed to assess problematic exercise in order to identify and compare their theoretical conceptualisations on which they are based. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in the electronic databases Web of Science, Scielo, PsychINFO, PsycTEST and SCOPUS from their inception to January 2020. Results: Seventeen assessment instruments met the eligibility criteria to be included in the present review. The instruments were classified according to their conceptualisation into five groups: (i) problematic exercise as an end of an exercise continuum, (ii) problematic exercise as a means of regulating body size and weight, (iii) problematic exercise as dependence, (iv) problematic exercise as a behavioural addiction and (v) no clear conceptualisation. Discussion: The results suggest that the conceptualisations of the assessment instruments have resulted in a strong dichotomy in relation to the primary or secondary character of the problematic exercise that might be limiting the capacity of the instruments to adequately capture the multidimensionality of this construct. Conclusions: Given the interest in understanding the complexity surrounding the problematic exercise, future research should develop more comprehensive definitions of this construct. This would allow a greater conceptual consensus to be reached that would allow progress to be made in the study of the problematic exercise.
