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Facing Life Problems Through the Internet. The Link Between Psychosocial Malaise and Problematic Internet Use in an Adolescent Sample
No full textScholars have highlighted the role of negative affect as key correlates of Problematic Internet Use (PIU) According to the assumption that Internet-related behaviours can be seen as mechanisms to cope with everyday life (Kardefelt-Winther, 2017), the present study aims to explore the relation between PIU and psychosocial malaise, expecting that adolescents with high levels of social anxiety, negative emotions, and loneliness are more likely to be associated to the problem group of Internet users. Measures of PIU (GPIUS-2), social anxiety (IAS), negative affectivity (PANAS), and loneliness (ILS) were detected in a sample of 766 students attending Year 9-11 (13-19 years old; 47% females) of public high schools in the territory of Lecce (Apulia-Italy). A sub-group of problematic Internet users was identified (n = 185) and a control group was selected (n = 187). A logistic regression was applied to estimate the effect of psychosocial variables on the differentiation between problematic and control Internet users. Results of the present cross-sectional study show that a higher level of social anxiety, negative emotions, and loneliness increases the probability of belonging to the group of problematic Internet users. No significant differences between males and females were found in GPIU levels. The findings show that, for a better understanding of PIU onset and maintenance among adolescents, it is important, to take into account the life problems which may lead young people to overindulge in Internet use
Facing life problems through the Internet. The link between psychosocial malaise and problematic Internet use in an adolescent sample
Full text linkIntroduction: Scholars have highlighted the role of negative affect as key correlates of Problematic Internet Use (PIU). According to the assumption that Internet-related behaviours can be seen as mechanisms to cope with everyday life (Kardefelt-Winther, 2017), the present study aims to explore the relation between PIU and psychosocial malaise, expecting that adolescents with high levels of social anxiety, negative emotions, and loneliness are more likely to be associated to the problem group of internet users.
Methods: Measures of PIU (GPIUS-2), social anxiety (IAS, negative affectivity (PANAS), and loneliness (ILS) were detected in a sample of 766 students attending yr. 9 - 11 (13-19 years old; 47% females) of public high schools in the territory of Lecce (Apulia –Italy). A sub-group of problematic internet users was identified (n=185) and a control group was selected (n=187). A logistic regression was applied in order to esteem the effect of psychosocial variables on the differentiation between problematic and control internet users.
Results: Results of the present cross-sectional study show that a higher level of social anxiety, negative emotions, and loneliness increases the probability of belonging to the group of problematic internet users.
Conclusions: The findings show that for a better understanding of PIU onset and maintenance among adolescents, it is important to take into account the life problems which may lead young people to overindulge in internet use
PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE AMONG ADOLESCENTS AND THE VIEW OF CONTEXT: A PLS-STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL
No full textThe idea of Internet use as a way to face psychosocial malaise is growing in the scientific literature about
Problematic Internet Use (PIU). The present study, assuming the Semiotic Cultural Psycho-social Theory
(SCPT) (Salvatore, 2018) as theoretical framework, postulates and emphasizes that the context in which
the subject is embedded provide the symbolic resources, which ground the way adolescents perceive,
experience, and therefore deal with the material and social world, including the likelihood of using the
Internet as a way to facing life problems and difficulties. SCTP adopts the term “Symbolic Universes”
(SU) to denote affect-laden assumptions concerning the world which may (or not) promote adaptive
responses.
Specifically, the present study aimed to test a mediation model in which each Symbolic Universes
(i.e. independent variable) is associated with the psychosocial malaise in terms of social anxiety,
loneliness, and negative emotions (i.e. mediator variable), which in turn has effects on PIU (i.e. dependent
variable).
Measures of PIU (GPIUS), symbolic universes (VOC), negative affect (PANAS), social anxiety (IAS),
loneliness (ILs) among a total of 764 Southern Italy youths aged from 13 to 19 (mean age =15.05
± 1.152). A Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was firstly run to detect SU; a Partial Least
Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was then performed on R for testing the hypothesized
mediation model.
The results demonstrated that Symbolic Universes characterized by anomie and unreliability of the social
context are associated with adolescents’ PIU though the mediation of social anxiety, loneliness, and
negative emotions.
Overall, findings suggest that within an anomic and unreliable scenario, PIU might acquire the meaning
of a way to face life in an environment that seems meaningless, uncertain, and detrimental. On the plane
of intervention, this points to the need for programs that address social and cultural influences in youths’
Internet use
Internet use during the COVID-19 outbreak: A resource for well-being or an amplifier of psychological distress? A study on an Italian sample
Full text linkInternet usage increased globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the role of online/offline relational resources to see whether the Internet improved well-being or amplified psychological distress, also considering the mediating role of Internet use motives. A sample of 573 Italian adults (Mean age = 40.28 years; SD = 16.43; 64% women) reported their motives for Internet use during lockdown and completed standardized measures on loneliness, online social support, well-being and problematic Internet use (PIU). A path analysis showed that loneliness positively predicted PIU and negatively predicted well-being, whereas perceived online social support positively predicted well-being. Loneliness was significantly associated with social/coping motives, which in turn were associated with PIU. Moreover, loneliness mediated the relationship between online social support and PIU. No significant mediating role was found for knowledge and studying/working motives. These findings call for tailored efforts to blunt the impact of social isolation and foster social connectivity
What Adolescents Have to Say about Problematic Internet Use: A Qualitative Study Based on Focus Groups
Full text linkIn this paper, the study presented is designed to gain a deeper insight into how adolescents describe, understand, and suggest dealing with Problematic Internet Use (PIU). Eight focus groups were activated with a total of 70 students from the 9th and 11th grades (Mean Age = 15.53 ± 1.202; Female = 44.4%) in four different schools in Southern Italy. A Thematic Analysis was applied to the verbatim transcripts, and seven macro-categories were identified throughout the discourses collected: definition of PIU, symptomatology, impact, determinants, intervention strategy, opportunities and limits of the digital world, and needs that adolescents try to satisfy by surfing the net and which the offline world does not fulfill. Participants converge in seeing PIU in terms of addiction but adopt heterogeneous viewpoints in talking about the reasons for problematic engagement and possible preventive intervention strategies. In the overall picture emerging from the responses, PIU appeared to be the outcome of a psychological dynamic emerging from the interaction of individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural dimensions
Being online in the time of COVID-19: Narratives from a sample of young adults and the relationship with well-being
Full text linkDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, Internet might influence daily functioning in both positive and negative ways. Within the conceptual framework of the semiotic cultural psycho-social theory, this study examines the meanings of being online during the COVID-19 pandemic based on narratives collected from Italian university students (Mean age = 22.78; SD = 2.70). Computer-assisted content analysis was used to map the main Dimensions of Meaning (DM) characterizing their texts; ANOVA was used to examine (dis)similarities between DM related to sociodemographic characteristics and connotations of Internet use; Pearson's correlations were computed to examine the relationships between DM and well-being. Two DM emerged: (a) being online in daily life ('rupture' versus 'continuity') and (b) Internet functions during the pandemic ('health emergency' versus 'daily activities'). Notably, participants high on the 'daily activities' polarity of Internet functions connoted the Internet as a resource and reported higher levels of well-being, whereas participants high on the opposite polarity of "health emergency" connoted the Internet as a refuge and reported lower levels of well-being. Findings suggest that Internet use and its impact on well-being during the pandemic relates to the personal and social cultural meanings attributed to being onlin
Relationship between view of context, psychosocial malaise and problematic internet use: mediation analysis using partial least squares structural equation modelling
Full text linkBACKGROUND: According to more recent approaches on problematic internet use (PIU), using the internet can be seen as a way of compensating for psychosocial malaise. Taking semiotic cultural psychology theory as its theoretical framework, this study examines the role of affect-laden assumptions concerning the world, known as latent dimensions of sense (LDSs), in promoting (or not) adaptive responses, including internet use as a maladaptive strategy against problems and difficulties. AIMS: To test a theoretical model in which PIU is predicted by LDSs through the mediation of high levels of psychosocial malaise. METHOD: We measured PIU (using the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2), LDSs (View of Context questionnaire), negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), social anxiety (Interaction Anxiousness Scale) and loneliness (Italian Loneliness Scale) in 764 Italian adolescents (mean age 15.05 years, s.d. = 1.152 years). LDSs were detected using a multiple correspondence analysis; after confirmatory composite analysis, partial least squares structural equation modelling with higher-order components was performed to test the mediation model. RESULTS: The results show a relationship between LDSs corresponding to an extreme negative evaluation of the sociocultural context, experienced as absolutely unreliable, and PIU through the mediation of psychosocial malaise (95% CI 0.101– 0.171; P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the findings suggest that PIU might be a way of compensating for unpleasant states in a context perceived in an extremely negative and homogenising way, i.e. as totally lacking resources and trustworthy people
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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