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Depression, anxiety and fear of missing out as correlates of social, non-social and problematic smartphone use
Abstract
Few studies have examined mental health variables in relation to social vs. non-social smartphone use, and how such types of use relate to problematic smartphone use (PSU). We conducted a web survey of 316 American undergraduate students about severity of depression, anxiety, fear of missing out (FOMO), social and non-social smartphone use, and PSU. Using structural equation modeling, we found that compared to social smartphone use, non-social use was more strongly linked with severity of PSU (β = .18, p < .05) and FOMO (β = .24, p < .05). FOMO mediated relations between depression severity and non-social smartphone use (β = .09, p = .04). Furthermore, FOMO mediated relations between both depression (β = .23, p < .001) and anxiety (β = .16, p = .04) with PSU severity. We discuss non-social smartphone use as a possible avoidance strategy among anxious individuals, and the role of FOMO in individuals desiring social connectedness but also feeling socially anxious. Results are discussed in the context of a comprehensive theoretical model on pathways toward excessive internet use.
... The phenomenon of FoMO can be understood as self-created uncertainty, resulting from chronic or situational deficits in the satisfaction of psychological needs. Several studies have found that FoMO was significantly associated with PIU, either on its own (see Elhai, Gallinari, Rozgonjuk, & Yang, 2020;Elhai, Levine, Dvorak, & Hall, 2016;Wolniewicz, Tiamiyu, Weeks, & Elhai, 2018 for example), or as a mediator of the relation between depression/anxiety and problematic smartphone use Elhai et al., 2016;Elhai et al., 2021;Elhai, Yang, Fang, Bai, & Hall, 2020), or problematic use of online videogames (see Li, Griffiths, Mei, & Niu, 2021;Wang, Liu, Zhang, & Zhang, 2022;Yuan, Elhai, & Hall, 2021 for example). Counterintuitively, FoMO appeared more related with the "process use" of smartphone (i.e. ...
... Counterintuitively, FoMO appeared more related with the "process use" of smartphone (i.e. news consumption, entertainment, and relaxation) than with its "social use" (social media activities, massive multiplayer online game (see Elhai, Gallinari, et al., 2020;; Overall, a high FoMO score should be positively associated with PIU scores in general, possibly with a stronger association for activities related to non-social use of Internet. ...
... The concept of anxiety encompasses trait anxiety, which refers to the predisposition to experience states of fear (nervousness, discomfort …) in the presence of a stimulus, and state anxiety, which refers to the transient state of fear in a given situation; these two aspects of anxiety have not always been examined separately in the literature. Recent studies have found that PIU was related to anxiety (Davey, Kaynat, & Sanjeev, 2020), including both trait anxiety (see Davey et al., 2020;Elhai, Gallinari, et al., 2020;Hetzel-Riggin & Pritchard, 2011;Kim, Lee, & Choi, 2015 for example) and state anxiety (see Davey et al., 2020;Elhai, Gallinari, et al., 2020;Hetzel-Riggin & Pritchard, 2011;Kim et al., 2015 for example). In particular, a number of studies have shown a correlation between trait or state anxiety and problematic use of social networks (see Primack et al., 2017;Thorisdottir et al., 2020 for example), which seems to depend on patterns of use: passive use (scrolling) of a social network is associated with more anxiety than active use (posting; Thorisdottir, Sigurvinsdottir, Asgeirsdottir, Allegrante, & Sigfusdottir, 2019). ...
... Researchers have explored relationships between PTSD and other aspects of maladaptive technology use [5]. One such aspect is the fear of missing out, or FOMO, which is characterized by a persistent need to stay connected to the experiences of others, typically through using social media [7][8][9]. FOMO is a widespread phenomenon that can be detrimental to physical and mental health [10]. It is not necessarily bad, as it can enhance the strength of social media connections and improve happiness in some [11]. ...
... It is reasonable to assume that the destruction of social networks caused by the earthquake is also a cause of FOMO. Other studies on the relationship between PTSD and FOMO typically include mediator variables, such as problematic mobile phone use [3,8,16,27], anxiety or depression [5,6,10,15,16,28], compensatory internet use [15], etc., and also consider the role of certain moderator variables, such as family environment [6], adulthood or not [4,6]. Compensatory Internet use theory posits that FOMO and sharing false information may be markers of problematic Internet use that is engaged in to escape from real-world problems or reduce dysphoric moods [12]. ...
... Elhai et al. [7] was one of the first to examine the relationship between FOMO and PTSD severity in Asian subjects, and they discovered that FOMO may be an important variable in explaining certain types of psychopathology. In another study by Elhai et al. [8], he expressed concern that few studies had examined mental health variables associated with smartphone use and misinformation sharing. ...
Background
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sufferers show problematic patterns of Internet use such as fear of missing out (FOMO) and sharing misinformation and fake news. This study aimed to investigate these associations in survivors of the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, China.
Methods
A self-reported survey was completed by 356 survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake. A mediated structural equation model was constructed to test a proposed pattern of associations with FOMO as a mediator of the relationship between PTSD symptoms and belief in fake news, as well as moderators of this pathway.
Results
PTSD was directly associated with believing fake news (β = 0.444, p < .001) and with FOMO (β = 0.347, p < .001). FOMO mediated the association between PTSD and fake news belief (β = 0.373, p < .001). Age moderated the direct (β = 0.148, t = 3.097, p = .002) and indirect (β = 0.145, t = 3.122, p = .002) pathways, with effects more pronounced with increasing age. Gender was also a moderator, with the indirect effect present in females but not in males (β = 0.281, t = 6.737, p < .001).
Conclusion
Those with higher PTSD symptoms are more likely to believe fake news and this is partly explained by FOMO. This effect is present in females and not males and is stronger in older people. Findings extend knowledge of the role of psychological variables in problematic Internet use among those with PTSD.
... problematic use) and psychological distress in young adults, marked by adverse emotional and mental health outcomes such as symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress (e.g. Boumosleh and Jaalouk 2017;Elhai et al. 2020;Guo et al. 2020; for reviews, see Elhai et al., 2017a;Yang et al. 2020). In particular, prolonged smartphone screen time (e.g. ...
... Notably, problematic smartphone use (PSU), characterised by excessive and compulsive smartphone use accompanied by functional impairments in daily activities (Busch and McCarthy 2021;Elhai, Levine, and Hall 2019;Rozgonjuk et al. 2018), is a key index of excessive smartphone use that has consistently been related to psychological distress (Della Vedova et al. 2022;Elhai et al., 2017a;Elhai et al. 2020;Guo et al. 2020;Hawi and Samaha 2017;Yang et al. 2020). Distinct from PSU, research has also found that the frequency of smartphone checking for new and missed notifications, which interrupts everyday activities, is related to higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress (Elhai et al. 2021;Winkler et al. 2020). ...
... problematic smartphone use) to examine its relationship to psychological distress (e.g. Elhai et al. 2020;Guo et al. 2020;Winkler et al. 2020;Yang et al. 2020), even though these self-report measures are not consistently correlated with objective measures of smartphone use (Boase and Ling 2013;Kobayashi and Boase 2012). Drawing on the displacement and interference framework of smartphone use (Kushlev and Leitao 2020), it is crucial that we examine the unique associations between pertinent aspects of smartphone use (e.g. ...
Recent theoretical and empirical accounts maintain that different indices of smartphone use—including problematic smartphone use, phone-checking, and screen time—tap distinct facets of smartphone use. This highlights the importance of disentangling potentially unique associations between facets of smartphone use and psychological distress outcomes. The present study examined fine-grained relationships between several smartphone-use indices and facets of psychological distress. Further, we probed whether sex modulated the relationships between smartphone-mediated behaviours and distress outcomes. Using structural equation modelling, we analysed data from young adults (N = 364) and evaluated the associations of smartphone-related behaviours—problematic use, phone checking, and overall screen time—with depression, anxiety, and stress. We found that phone-checking frequency predicted greater depression, anxiety, and stress levels, while problematic smartphone use predicted anxiety levels above and beyond the effects of other indices. Further, smartphone screen time predicted depression, but not other distress-related outcomes. We also found an interaction effect such that the positive relation between problematic smartphone use and stress was more pronounced for females than males. Our results held true when key covariates (age, sex, socioeconomic status, negative affect, and neuroticism) were accounted for. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing indices of smartphone use in relation to psychological distress.
... Two of the most well-known phenomena in the context of problematic Internet use are Phubbing and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) [10]. Phubbing, defined as the act of looking at a smartphone while having a face-to-face conversation with others [11], is influenced by factors such as excessive Internet use, technology addictions (social media, smartphones, etc.), lack of self-control, social anxiety, and anxiety traits [12]. ...
... FoMO is identified as a form of social anxiety characterized by the desire to stay continuously connected with what others are doing and the fear of being excluded from rewarding events, experiences, or social contexts [10]. FoMO has been recognized as a significant predictor of problematic Internet use and technology addiction, by noticing that individuals with high levels of FoMO are more likely to engage in excessive online activities to avoid missing out on social interactions and updates [16][17][18]. ...
Background: Several studies focused on the escalating prevalence of Problematic Use of Internet (PUI) and its consequential impact on mental health globally. This study investigates the relationship between PUI and associated psychological variables across different cultural contexts in Italy, Spain, Ecuador, and Peru. Method: A total of 675 participants, aged 18 to 54 (M = 22.73; SD = 4.05), completed measures assessing Internet addiction, social media addiction, Fear of Missing Out, Internet Gaming Disorder, and Phubbing. Results: Significant cultural variations were found, with Italian participants showing higher levels of Internet addiction but lower levels of social media addiction compared to other countries. Fear of Missing Out was higher in Italy, while the Italian sample exhibited lower Internet Gaming Disorder levels compared to Peru. As regards the communication disturbance caused by Phubbing, the Italian sample demonstrated significantly higher scores than the Peruvian sample. Linear regression analyses revealed distinct predictors for problematic Internet use in each country, emphasizing the importance of considering the cultural context in understanding this phenomenon. Conclusions: These findings contribute valuable insights into the interplay of cultural factors, psychological variables, and problematic Internet use, guiding future research and interventions.
... In a different study about the effects of FoMO and depression, a global study was carried out on university students associating positive correlation FoMO with depression (Elhai et al., 2020). Another research has focused on students between the age of 12 to 16 years old (Sela et al., 2020). ...
... These findings are also in line with the previous studies in the sense that FoMO influences depression positively. These findings are similar to the study which was carried out by Elhai et al (2020) which determined that FoMO is a predictor of depression. ...
Depression is a major mental health problem that is becoming a great concern among adolescents. An adolescent who experiences depression is associated with having internet addiction and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). The study aims to i) identify the correlation between internet addiction and FoMO and depression, as well as ii) to determine the predictive effects of internet addiction and FoMO on the depression of rural secondary school students. This quantitative approach study utilises the online questionnaire method (via Google Form) which was participated by 145 Form 4 students. A descriptive analysis of the Pearson Correlation and regression was conducted using the 25.0 version of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The results indicated that internet addiction and FoMO have significant positive correlation with depression. Internet addiction and FoMO have positive predictive effects on depression of rural secondary school students. The implication of this study holds crucial importance in understanding the correlation between internet addiction and FoMO with depression, as well as the necessity for intervention that can be designed in order to assist the treatment of students who face the problems of internet addiction, FoMO and depression. The recommendation for future researchers is to further explore and expand the research via a mixed-method in order to gain more transparent and accurate results based on respondents' experiences.
... This phenomenon is widespread among the younger population and leads to significant negative consequences across different aspects of life (Elhai et al., 2021;Jupowicz-Ginalska et al., 2021). Individuals characterized by pronounced FOMO encounter a plethora of adverse feelings, such as depressive symptoms and anxiety, and may adopt diverse strategies to manage these sentiments (Dempsey et al., 2019;Elhai et al., 2020). This research posits that those with elevated FOMO frequently resort to maladaptive stress-coping mechanisms, with a specific emphasis on an increased propensity to alcohol coping. ...
... Consequently, they may turn to social media as a means of compensating for these unmet needs. Given that an elevated FOMO is linked to potential misuse of social media and correlates with various undesirable traits and behaviors (e.g., Blackwell et al., 2017;Elhai et al., 2020;Sekścińska & Jaworska, 2022), it can result in significant repercussions across various aspects of life. When looking at the FOMO explanation in SDT framework, it is plausible that the use of social media might be just one among several self-regulatory behaviors that individuals with high FOMO engage in. ...
A high level of fear of missing out (FOMO) is related to many adverse emotions and behaviors, including stress, maladaptive coping, risk-taking, and alcohol consumption. However, previous research on FOMO has not considered particularly vulnerable cohorts like individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). In this project, we have conducted two preliminary studies (N1 = 356; N2 = 66) investigating the role of FOMO in alcohol-related coping strategy in a general population of young adults as well as a clinical sample of AUD patients. Results showed that FOMO is a positive predictor of alcohol coping in both studied samples, and it is a positive predictor of health risk-taking among people with AUD. The study identifies high FOMO as a risk factor for adopting maladaptive coping strategies, specifically alcohol coping.
... 11 These theoretical models, which emphasize psychopathology as a predictor of PMPU, predominate the empirical literature (eg, Ref. 12). However, the majority of the studies supporting these models have been crosssectional (eg, Ref. 13), and there is also evidence to suggest that PMPU may serve as a predictor of psychopathology. 14,15 Research suggests that within the CIUT and I-PACE models, there is the potential for feedback loops to exist in which PMPU might also drive psychopathology due to the cost PMPU might have on mental health. ...
... 29 Furthermore, in cross-sectional samples of young adults and adolescents, PMPU predicted higher levels of anxiety symptoms and somatic complaints. 13,30 In a cross-sectional sample of 152 undergraduates, Sapacz and Clark found that levels of anxiety increased when phones were visibly present but unable to be accessed by participants. 28 In one of the few prospective studies to have examined PMPU and its correlates, phone overuse was associated with higher stress and sleep disturbance in females, while stress related to the perceived unavailability of a phone was associated with both depressive symptoms and sleep problems for both males and females across the year-long study. ...
Objectives:
With such high rates of sleep and mental health problems among undergraduate students, understanding potential antecedents of these interrelated problems has emerged as a critical area of examination. One potential factor underlying these problems is problematic smartphone use, which is defined as excessive phone use, impulse control problems related to the use, and negative consequences stemming from these behaviors. Accordingly, the current study sought to examine how relative changes in problematic smartphone use might impact college students' sleep disturbance via their psychological functioning (ie, psychological inflexibility and anxiety symptoms).
Methods:
The 2-wave (baseline and 2-month follow-up) online sample consisted of 385 undergraduates (81% female; M = 20.0, SD = 1.6), who reported problematic smartphone use, psychological flexibility, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbance.
Results:
Controlling for baseline levels of sleep hygiene, age, and gender, our model demonstrated a significant indirect effect from problematic smartphone use to sleep disturbance. Specifically, relative increases from baseline to the 2-month follow-up in students' problematic smartphone use predicted subsequent increases in psychological inflexibility, which predicted increases in anxiety symptoms, which, in turn, predicted increases in sleep disturbance.
Conclusions:
Given the ubiquity of college students' smartphone use, the potential for problematic use remains high. Results suggest that the negative consequences of problematic smartphone use not only can include college students' mental health but also their sleep. With such high levels of college students suffering from mental health and sleep problems, clinicians and college administrators should consider the potential sequelae of the problematic use of smartphones.
... Furthermore, researchers discovered that nonsocial usage, such as seeking information without any primary social purposes (Wang et al., 2017), is more closely associated with negative outcomes such as PSU (Su et al., 2022) and mental health problems (Stevic et al., 2019) than social usage, such as engaging in activities like calling and responding to messages to maintain and develop social relationships (Burke and Kraut, 2016). Research also found that FOMO, which reflects the desire for social connectedness, is more likely to be related to non-social use rather than social use, with non-social use being a possible avoidance strategy for anxiety (Elhai et al., 2020). As nomophobia demonstrates both problematic and functional use characteristics (Ren et al., 2023), the results suggest that entertainment (a typical non-social smartphone use) may be an important factor to explain the deterioration of nomophobia and targets for interventions. ...
... A particular smartphone use may have more than one function (Elhai et al., 2017). For instance, common social media platforms such as Weibo and Facebook, not only enable social interaction but also provide entertainment gratification (Elhai et al., 2020;Gan and Wang, 2014). Future studies should consider measuring different contents of smartphone use more precisely. ...
... Evidence from previous studies has proven that anxiety is associated with IGD (22,23). Individuals with anxiety disorders are more likely to socialize online, overuse smartphones and be addicted to online games (24)(25)(26). Currently, influenced by all kinds of media information and uncertainty about the perceived risk of the epidemic, people are more anxious in the face of the COVID-19 lockdown. ...
... Given the acuteness and recurrence of panic disorder symptoms (67), individuals may have persistent worries, and online games may provide a distraction. Gaming online is an escape strategy to alleviate anxious emotions, and people may spend excessive amounts of time on online games as a coping mechanism to escape from the reality of their worries and difficulties (24)(25)(26). However, online gaming does not actually solve the problem, and wasting too much time on games makes things worse. ...
Background
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become a social problem in children. Evidence from previous studies has proven that anxiety is associated with IGD. However, IGD was always assessed as a whole based on total scores, and the fine-grained relationship between anxiety and IGD was hidden.
Objective
The present study aims to investigate the fine-grained relationship between anxiety and IGD in elementary school students during the COVID-19 lockdown, and to identify potential targets for psychological interventions.
Methods
During the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, 667 children from a primary school in China were investigated by the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Short Version and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale. R4.1.1 software was used to construct a network model, assess bridge centrality, and test the robustness of the network and conduct a network.
Results
There were 23 cross-community edges (weight ranged from −0.03 to 0.12), and each node of anxiety was connected to different nodes of IGD. The nodes with the top 80th percentile bridge expected influence were A2 “social phobia” (0.20), A3 “panic disorder” (0.21) and IGD5 “escape” (0.22). The robustness of the network was acceptable.
Conclusion
From the perspective of network analysis, the present study explored the correlation pathways between anxiety and IGD in children and identified social phobia and panic disorder as the best targets for intervention to reduce IGD.
... Video and phone calls Using traditional phone activities (call and short message) positively affects smartphone dependency symptoms [29]. Process use Using a smartphone for non-social purposes such as entertainment, relaxation, news consumption and other primarily non-social purposes i) Problematic smartphone use is related to process smartphone use [21], [53]; ii) Use patterns of entertainment correlated positively with problematic smartphone use [20], [22], [47]; iii) The use of the smartphone for instrumental, entertainment, relational, expressive and informational purposes predicted overall PSU [46], [47], [54], [55]; iv) Hedonic smartphone use motivation (to gain pleasure) was positively related to PSU via more time spent on entertainment [56]; v) Process-oriented smartphone use mediated the relationship between materialism and problematic smartphone dependency [57]; vi) Process smartphone use mediated relations between expressive suppression and PSU severity [58]; vii) The relationship between uncertainty intolerance and PSU levels was mediated by non-social smartphone use [59]; viii) The impact of alexithymia on PSU was partially mediated by entertainment patterns [23]. Gaming i) Playing video games predicted problematic smartphone use [25], [27]- [29]; ii) Games apps were positively related to symptoms of smartphone addiction [31], [47]; iii) Playing games was associated with a higher smartphone addiction tendency [38], [41], [42], [44], [45]; vi) In female subsamples, time spent using mobile phones for video gaming negatively predicted mobile phone addiction symptoms [32]; v) Mobile phone gaming mediated the association between autonomy need dissatisfaction and problematic mobile phone use [60]. ...
... Several prior evidence [20]- [22], [46], [47], [53]- [56] also revealed that the process of smartphone use which involves primarily non-social purposes (e.g., entertainment or relaxation) could be positively associated with or in predicting PSU. Smartphones are regarded as incredibly beneficial and effective for a variety of recreational activities including gaming, photography, video production, GPS navigation, movie viewing, YouTube viewing, radio listening and other activities [67]. ...
This review aimed to provide an overview of the influence of social and process smartphone use on problematic smartphone use (PSU) among adolescents aged between 10-24 years old. Social smartphone use comprises three types of smartphone features: social networking sites, chatting/texting/instant messaging, and video/phone calls. On the other hand, categories of process smartphone use include watching videos/television/movies, web surfing, playing games, listening to music/podcasts/radio, and educational learning. There were 42 studies with a total of 139,389 adolescents met the criteria for inclusion after a thorough search of academic databases. Overall, the evidence from the studies included in this review revealed that chatting/texting, video/phone calls, watching videos/television/movies and music/podcasts/radio were positively and significantly linked to and predicted problematic smartphone use. Social networking sites use, instant messaging, gaming, web surfing and educational learning yielded inconsistent results. They could have a positive or negative relationship with PSU and play a role in predicting PSU. More research is needed for music/podcasts/radio and video/phone calls because the results are still scarce.
... A robust impact on mental health by fear of missing out (FoMO) was verified by many researchers recently [6,7]. FoMO is a diffuse anxiety that occurs when individuals fear missing out on the positive experiences of others [8,9]. ...
... Numerous research has discovered a connection between mental health and FoMO. For example, FoMO was positively correlated with depression and anxiety [6,10] and significantly predicted stress [11]. Individuals with high levels of FoMO were more likely to suffer from alcohol abuse [12] and sleep disorders [13]. ...
Background
Depression, anxiety, and stress are the main issues that affect the mental health of individuals. Solitude behavior, fear of missing out, and mental health are all closely related.
Objective
This study was intended to investigate the relationship between solitude behavior, fear of missing out, and mental health.
Methods
Short Form of Solitude Behavior Scale, Fear of Missing Out scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 were employed in this study to investigate 616 college students. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 for basic data organization, and Mplus 8.3 was used to complete the analysis of the mediation model.
Results
(1) Positive solitude was positively associated with eccentricity and negatively related to loneliness; social avoidance positively correlated with eccentricity and loneliness. (2) Social avoidance and loneliness affected mental health through the mediating effect of fear of missing out, whereas positive solitude and eccentricity did not affect mental health through fear of missing out. Moreover, the results still held in the model with depression, anxiety, and stress as dependent variables.
Conclusion
The roles of different solitude behavior in the relationship between fear of missing out and mental health differed. Social avoidance and loneliness as not self-determined solitude could activate the fear of missing out, which could affect mental health.
... Indeed, previous studies have found that FoMO was an important predictor of problematic smartphone use [46][47][48][49][50][51]. For example, a longitudinal study found that FoMO was associated with problematic smartphone use over one year among adolescents [52]. ...
... In comparison to statistical methods that emphasize inference, machine learning focuses on prediction, with analysis performed autonomously or with minimal human guidance in large data sets [61]. Machine learning has been evidenced as an effective tool for identifying risk factors for problematic smartphone use in previous work by previous study [47]-the present study builds on this work by identifying risk factors in a sample of Canadian adolescents. ...
The goal of the present study was to use machine learning to identify how gender, age, ethnicity, screen time, internalizing problems, self-regulation, and FoMO were related to problematic smartphone use in a sample of Canadian adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were N = 2527 (1269 boys; Mage = 15.17 years, SD = 1.48 years) high school students from the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Data on problematic smartphone use, screen time, internalizing problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, and stress), self-regulation, and FoMO were collected via an online questionnaire. Several different machine learning algorithms were used to train the statistical model of predictive variables in predicting problematic smartphone use. The results indicated that Shrinkage algorithms (lasso, ridge, and elastic net regression) performed better than other algorithms. Moreover, FoMO, emotional, and cognitive self-regulation made the largest relative contribution to predicting problematic smartphone use. These findings highlight the importance of FoMO and self-regulation in understanding problematic smartphone use.
... Given that an increasing number of studies report associations between excessive social media use with elevated levels of depression, impulsivity, autism and alexithymia (Demirci, Akgonul, & Akpinar, 2015;Wasil, Venturo-Conerly, Shingleton, & Weisz, 2019;Elhai, Gallinari, Rozgonjuk, & Yang, 2020;Elhai, Yang, Fang, Bai, & Hall, 2020), and that sub-clinical variations in these domains have been associated with altered neural activation and cognitive processing (Ruf, Bessette, Pearlson, & Stevens, 2017;Luo et al., 2018;Li et al., 2019;Fan et al., 2023) corresponding indices were assessed as potential confounders. To this end all subjects underwent Chinese versions of previously validated questionnaires assessing these domains, including the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Wang, 2008;Qiu, Zheng, & Wang, 2008), Beck Depression Index-II (BDI-II) (Beck et al., 1996;Sun, Li, Yu, & Li, 2017), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) (Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995;Di, Gong, Shi, Ahmed, & Nandi, 2019), Autism Spectrum Quotient-50 (ASQ-50) ( Baron-Cohen et al., 2006;Zhang et al., 2016), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) (Bagby et al., 1994;Ling, Zeng, Yuan, & Zhong, 2016). ...
Background
Smartphones and social media have become ubiquitous in our lives, and while debates about their negative impact on mental health, addictive potential, and disruptive effects on daily activities have surged, neurobiological evidence remains scarce. Here, we investigated whether the behavioral and neural effects of interference of continuous attention by incoming social media messages on WeChat varies according to its problematic use as assessed via an addiction framework.
Methods
N = 60 healthy individuals were stratified based on their level of problematic WeChat usage as measured by the WeChat Addiction Scale (WAS): LOW (15 males and 15 females) and HIGH (15 males and 15 females) addictive tendencies. Participants underwent an AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) with WeChat-associated (incoming message) and neutral auditory distractors as well as a no distractor condition. Concurrent functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) assessments of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were implemented to determine the underlying neurofunctional mechanisms.
Results
On the behavioral level the HIGH group demonstrated faster reaction times during the WeChat and no distractor condition compared to the LOW group. Exploratory analyses indicated that the WeChat distraction decreased left lateral OFC activity in the LOW but enhanced activity in this region in the HIGH group.
Conclusion
Against our hypotheses WeChat distraction enhanced behavioral performance specially in individual with a tendency for problematic WeChat use, with the neural data pointing to less suppression of the OFC in individuals with a tendency for problematic usage. Findings underscore the complexity of the potential effects of new technology on daily live and indicate that addiction models might not be simply extendable to problematic social media usage.
... Assim, o EI 1 , mediado pela dependência de mídias sociais, pode indicar que indivíduos que permanecem mais tempo conectados tendem a ser mais dependentes 18,26 , com tendência a apresentar problemas emocionais e falta de prazer nas atividades diárias 28,43 . Além disso, a dependência de mídias sociais está associada com o "medo de perder algo", caracterizado pelo desejo de estar continuamente inteirado das novidades 44 , e com a presença e a gravidade dos sintomas depressivos 45 . Ainda nesse contexto, é importante ressaltar que há uma tendência de os indivíduos dependentes sobreporem múltiplos vícios 46 ...
Resumo
O aumento do uso de mídias sociais e sua associação com sintomas depressivos, especialmente em jovens adultos, tem gerado a necessidade do entendimento de como ocorre tal associação para subsidiar políticas de redução de danos e agravos. Nesse sentido, este estudo objetivou verificar o efeito mediador da dependência de mídias sociais e da qualidade do sono na associação entre o tempo de uso de mídias sociais e sintomas depressivos em universitários brasileiros. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, realizado com 2.823 universitários, que forneceram informações referentes ao tempo de uso de mídias sociais, à dependência de mídias sociais, aos sintomas depressivos e à qualidade do sono. A análise de mediação, ajustada por fatores de confusão, foi realizada por meio do software PROCESS para SPSS, para obtenção do efeito total (c), direto (c’) e indiretos (EI1, EI2 e EI3). Os resultados identificaram associação entre o tempo de uso de mídias sociais e os sintomas depressivos, mediada pela dependência de mídias sociais (EI1 = 20%) e pela qualidade do sono (EI1 = 40%). Os resultados permitem ampliar o conhecimento acerca dos mecanismos que influenciam mutuamente a relação entre o tempo de uso de mídias sociais e os sintomas depressivos, auxiliando na adoção de estratégias de redução de danos decorrentes do uso excessivo de mídias sociais.
... Online platforms are used by them basically to socialize or remain socially active but excessive use of SNS displays the possibilities of being addicted to it (Dhir, Yossatorn, Kaur, & Chen, 2018). The process slowly transforms into excessive or additive socialization or use of SNS (Elhai, Gallinari, Rozgonjuk, & Yang, 2020). ...
... a conclusive relationship between these variables has not been established conclusively (Akbari et al., 2021). Most current research has primarily focused on the psychological and behavioral problems arising from the FoMO (Riordan et al., 2015;Swan and Kendall, 2016;Franchina et al., 2018;Xie et al., 2018;Elhai et al., 2020a;Fitzgerald et al., 2023). However, the causes of FoMO remain unclear, and further investigation is necessary to explore its potential mechanisms. ...
The fear of missing out is a generalized anxiety stemming from the possibility of not being present at new events or advantageous situations of others. To explore potential mechanisms, a survey measuring the impact of event, coping style, anxiety, and fear of missing out was conducted with 1,014 college students (367 males and 647 females, aged 19–24 years). In addition, the study delved deeper into the dimensions of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal concerning the impact of event, examining their roles in coping style, anxiety, and fear of missing out. Results showed that: (1) The impact of event could predict the fear of missing out positively. (2) A more positive coping style is negatively associated with anxiety. (3) A chain mediation effect of coping style and anxiety is observed in the path from hyperarousal and avoidance to the fear of missing out. (4) In contrast to the hyperarousal or avoidance, the path from intrusion to the fear of missing out is mediated by anxiety but not coping style. These findings motivate us to implement different intervention tactics for varying impacts of events.
... The absence of group differences can be attributed to individuals using their phones for different uses that do not necessarily influence FoMO. Elhai et al. [104] found that FoMO is more associated with non-social smartphone use like entertainment, news and relaxation compared to social smartphone use. Though PSU was positively related to both trait and state FoMO, screentime was not associated with either. ...
Background and aim
The study investigated the effects of a 14-day social media abstinence on various mental health factors using an experimental design with follow-up assessment. Hypotheses included positive associations between problematic smartphone use (PSU) and depression, anxiety, fear of missing out (FoMO), and screentime. Decreases in screentime, PSU, depression and anxiety, and increases in body image were assumed for the abstinence group. Additionally, daily changes in FoMO and loneliness were explored.
Methods
Participants completed different questionnaires assessing PSU, FoMO, depression and anxiety, loneliness and body image and were randomized into control and social media abstinence groups. Daily questionnaires over 14 days assessed FoMO, loneliness, screentime, and depression and anxiety. 14 days after the abstinence, a follow-up questionnaire was administered. Multilevel models were used to assess changes over time.
Results
PSU was positively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and FoMO, but not with screentime. Spline models identified decreased screentime and body image dissatisfaction for the intervention group. Depression and anxiety symptoms, PSU, trait and state FoMO, and loneliness, showed a decrease during the overall intervention time but no difference between the investigated groups could be observed (hence this was an overall trend). For appearance evaluation and body area satisfaction, an increase in both groups was seen. Daily changes in both loneliness and FoMO were best modelled using cubic trends, but no group differences were significant.
Discussion
Results provide insights into effects of not using social media for 14 days and show that screentime and body image dissatisfaction decrease. The study also suggests areas for future studies to better understand how and why interventions show better results for some individuals.
... It is notably associated with competitive performance and athlete burnout [32] . Research has revealed that athletes' satisfaction with training is in uenced by the coach-athlete relationship [33] [34] , where positive relationships can enhance athletes' satisfaction with training and competitions [35][36] . However, there has been limited exploration of whether the coach-athlete relationship can subsequently impact athlete burnout through the lens of training satisfaction. ...
Purpose: Athlete burnout is an essential adverse factor that usually decreases athletes’ sports performance and reduces their passion for entire athletic career development. The present study examined the association of coach-athlete relationship, training satisfaction, and athlete burnout, and then explored the training satisfaction as a mediating role of the effect of coach-athlete relationship on athlete burnout among college soccer players.
Methods: Two hundred and eighteen college soccer players who came from seven Chinese higher education institutions participated in this study. The Coach-Athlete Relationship Scale, Training Satisfaction Scale, and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire were used to measure the basic information of participants respectively. Pearson’s product-moment correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and bootstrap method were conducted to analyze the collected data set.
Results: The results showed that 1) there was a significant correlation relationship between coach-athlete relationship, training satisfaction, and athlete burnout. 2) emotion, behavior, and cognition in coach-athlete relationship significantly negatively affected emotional/ physical exhaustion and sport devaluation in athlete burnout; emotion and behavior in coach-athlete relationship significantly negatively affected reduced athletic accomplishment in athlete burnout; emotion and behavior in coach-athlete relationship significantly positively affected training satisfaction; training satisfaction significantly negatively affected emotional/ physical exhaustion, reduced athletic accomplishment, and sport devaluation in athlete burnout. 3) training satisfaction has a significantly mediating effect on the relationship between coach-athlete relationship and athlete burnout.
Conclusion: Emotion and behavior in coach-athlete relationship can not only directly negative impact on athlete burnout but can also negatively influence athlete burnout through the mediating effect of training satisfaction. Therefore. We suggest that to mitigate athlete burnout, coaches should ensure timely communication with collegiate athletes during training, and collegiate athletes should incorporate mental training techniques into their routines.
... The cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use treats social anxiety as a form of psychopathology that plays a vital role in the induction of PSU [11]. Those with high social anxiety crave social connections but fear social engagement, leading to both offline and online social avoidance [24]. Offline social avoidance is manifested by over-choosing online social interactions that induce less anxiety, such as through the social use (i.e., social networking sites and messaging) of smartphones, which would trigger PSU [25,26]. ...
... FoMO is closely linked to unfulfilled social connection needs, 36 prompting individuals to resort to social media as a means of satisfying their relational requirements. 52 This reliance, in turn, contributes to compromised inhibitory control. As a negative emotional state, FoMO further erodes self-control capabilities by depleting limited cognitive resources, resulting in an inability to regulate social media usage. ...
Introduction
The general deficit in inhibitory control of problematic social media users has received widespread attention. However, the neural correlates of problematic social media use (PSMU) and inhibitory control remain unclear. Additionally, the co-occurrence of the fear of missing out (FoMO) with social media use is common, yet its role in the relationship between PSMU and inhibitory control has not been investigated.
Methods
This study aimed to examine the electrophysiological correlates of PSMU and inhibitory control using a modified two-choice oddball task combined with event-related potentials (ERPs), and to explore the role of FoMO in this relationship. A total of 66 participants with varying degrees of PSMU were included in the analysis based on the Problematic Mobile Social Media Usage Questionnaire.
Results
The study found that PSMU could impact inhibitory control. Specifically, as the PSMU score increases, the N2 amplitude is greater for social media-related pictures, and the P3 amplitude is smaller, while no significant differences are observed for neutral pictures. This suggests that PSMU affects inhibitory control by consuming more cognitive resources in the early conflict detection stage and leading to insufficient cognitive resources in the later stages of the inhibitory process. Furthermore, FoMO played a mediating role between PSMU and inhibitory control. PSMU could further impact inhibitory control through FoMO.
Conclusion
This study provides electrophysiological evidence for deficits in inhibitory control in PSMU and suggests that FoMO may further reduce inhibitory control in PSMU individuals.
... Si bien las redes sociales digitales pueden promover apoyo social y bienestar subjetivo (Gilmour et al., 2020;Kim & Lee, 2011), también son capaces de presentar un impacto negativo para la salud mental si se atiende a las consecuencias de su mal uso (Błachnio & Przepiorka, 2019;Grieve et al., 2020). Considerando que las relaciones sociales se extienden al ámbito digital, es probable que esto se traduzca en un uso excesivo de redes sociales cuando los individuos procuran mantenerse constantemente actualizados o participando continuamente de las actividades del grupo o grupos de pertenencia (Elhai et al., 2020;Oberst et al., 2017). En particular, esta búsqueda incesante de reconocimiento o valoración, inclusión y aprobación del grupo puede derivar en comportamientos patológicos o sindrómicos (Beyens et al., 2016;Herman, 2000;Przybylski et al., 2013). ...
El presente trabajo se propone examinar las propiedades psicométricas de la adaptación al contexto argentino de la escala de fear of missing out (FoMO, miedo a perderse algo) en una muestra compuesta por residentes del Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (amba) (Argentina). La escala permite medir un único factor que establece el grado en que las personas se encuentran pendientes de las actividades ajenas en comparación con las propias. Del estudio participaron 416 personas con edades entre 18 y 66 años (M = 28.82) y de diferentes géneros (hombres = 25 %; mujeres = 75 %). Los análisis confirmatorios arrojaron valores superiores a 0.90 para los índices ifi, nnfi y cfi, y para el rmsea, valores inferiores a 0.08. La consistencia interna evaluada a partir de los estadísticos alfa ordinal y omega de McDonald fue aceptable (α = 0.77; ω = 0.99). La evidencia de validez externa de la escala demostró asociaciones significativas con la escala de autoestima de Rosenberg (rses), de manera consistente con estudios previos.
... Though activating different brain areas (Horvath et al., 2020;Pyeon et al., 2021;Zheng et al., 2022), PSU is a concept that shares similarities to the maladaptive behavioral aspects of substance use disorders (Billieux et al., 2015;Brand et al., 2019). Numerous studies have shown that PSU severity positively correlates mildly to moderately with many mental disorder symptoms in adults, such as anxiety (Elhai, Levine, & Hall, 2019), depression (Elhai, Gallinari et al., 2020), and stress severity (Long et al., 2016), with similar findings in adolescent samples (Erdem & Sezer Efe, 2022;Extremera et al., 2019;Pereira et al., 2020;Wang & Lei, 2021;Wang et al., 2019;Watson et al., 2021). Hence, although PSU is not a diagnosis in the DSM-5 or ICD-11 manuals, PSU remains a serious problem that is related to adverse functional consequences on affected individuals' lives (Busch & McCarthy, 2021) and thus is worth exploring. ...
We explored problematic smartphone use (PSU) using latent profile analysis (LPA) and relationships with anxiety variables, including severity of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in a non-clinical sample. We conducted a web-based survey (during the COVID-19 pandemic from February to March 2020) with high school students (N = 1,797; 1,164 female; ages 13–19 years) in Tianjin, China, administering the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV) to assess PSU, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Scale, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) Scale. Using Mplus 8.7, we conducted LPA on SAS-SV item responses to uncover latent profiles and relations with anxiety and fear measures. A three-profile PSU model fit the data according to fit indices and likelihood ratio tests. SAS-SV item responses were lowest in profile 1, moderate in profile 2, and most severe in profile 3. Individual PSU profiles modeled by LPA demonstrated significant differences in social and generalized anxiety severity and FoMO. Controlling for age and sex, adolescents with higher levels of anxiety were more likely to be classified as profiles 2 and 3 rather than profile 1. These findings will hopefully inspire future studies and treatments concerning the severity of PSU as it relates to various psychopathology constructs.
... An individual is more likely to experience the impacts of FOMO if they participate in more impulsive activities to prevent missing out since they run the risk of missing out on other possibilities. This may result in elevated anxiety, reduced choice satisfaction, and a cycle of impulsive behavior fueled by FOMO 27 . It can make impulsive behavior worse, while impulsivity itself can make FOMO more intense. ...
... Previous research shows that social media can lead to academic failure, distraction, sleep problems, and physical health problems (Alt, 2015;Boustead & Flack, 2021;Kartol & Gündoğan, 2020). In addition, some research shows that social media can cause various negative emotions such as jealousy, loneliness, depression, low life satisfaction, feelings of inadequacy, and fear of social exclusion (Acar et al., 2020;Deniz, 2021;Elhai et al., 2020;Servidio, 2021). Furthermore, some studies have found that these negative emotional states can also affect an individual's buying behavior (Aydin et al., 2021;Çelik et al., 2019). ...
Background
There is an interrelationship between the concepts of social exclusion, compulsive buying behavior, fear of missing out (FoMO), and narcissism. Nevertheless, the extent to which these concepts mediate or moderate their relationships with each other has not been efficiently investigated.
Objective
This research aims to investigate how FoMO mediates and narcissism moderates the correlation between social exclusion and compulsive buying behavior. In addition, the research aims to test a conceptual model and highlight the differences that may occur in the conceptual model proposed in two different countries.
Methods
This model was analyzed among 1007 university students (Turkey = 506, Denmark = 501). The study used scales to measure social exclusion, compulsive buying behavior, FoMO, and narcissism. The study employed PROCESS Model 4 to analyze direct and indirect (mediation) effects and PROCESS Model 59 to assess conditional (moderation) effects. Furthermore, the Johnson-Neyman technique was utilized to investigate interaction terms.
Results
The findings indicate that those who face social exclusion tend to participate more in compulsive buying, and this connection is partly explained by FoMO. This suggests that individuals who encounter social exclusion may have an increased likelihood of experiencing FoMO, which may subsequently contribute to compulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, the moderating effect of narcissism differed between the Turkey and Danish samples. Specifically, in the Turkey sample, narcissism only modified the connection between social exclusion and FoMO, while in the Danish sample, it impacted both the connection between social exclusion and FoMO and the connection between FoMO and compulsive buying.
Conclusion
The obtained results show that the regulating role of narcissism is different in Turkey and Denmark within the conceptual model we studied.
... Scholars who consider FOMO a personal trait link the concept to negative psychological externalities that go beyond excessive social media usage, such as smartphone overuse (Fang et al., 2020) and anxiety and depression severity (Elhai et al., 2020). 1 However, more recent work has started to explore FOMO as a momentary, contextspecific feeling, elucidating its impact on consumers' behavioral outcomes (e.g., Good & Hyman, 2021). Accordingly, while most previous work on FOMO treats it as a trait variable, this study investigates momentary FOMO triggered by information received at a specific moment, displaying a present-time orientation (Hayran et al., 2020). ...
The cryptocurrencies (cryptos) market has undergone rapid development in the last years. Although this market is highly volatile and has frequently crashed, consumers show continued interest as well as widespread possession of such assets. Therefore, this research explores the mechanisms underlying consumers’ engagement in crypto trading. The results of five studies including eight experiments reveal that externally evoked fear‐of‐missing‐out (FOMO) appeals influence consumers’ investment decisions and that this effect is mediated by affective processes and moderated by impulsivity. The results further demonstrate that FOMO appeals lead consumers to repeated investment decisions, even if prior losses have been incurred. Finally, the findings suggest that the effects of FOMO can be mitigated via communication strategies (i.e., fear messages). The results provide notable implications for academics and policymakers concerned with consumers’ crypto engagement.
... The current study agrees with another that reported frequent checking of smartphones by individuals with social anxiety seeking reassurance from online interaction-related notifications. In addition, those with social phobia may show problematic smartphone use not only for social interactions but also for entertainment, relaxation activities, and searching for information as they avoid asking others for fear of judgment and due to their low self-esteem [54]. ...
Background
The problematic smartphone use has emerged with negative mental health consequences. The current study aims to assess the rate of occurrence of smartphone addiction and the relationship between smartphone addiction and social phobia and its severity in a sample of female university students.
Results
Out of 540 female students, 28.7% have severe smartphone addiction with higher number in students of academic faculties; also, 71.86% of the whole sample have social phobia with 22.78%, 21.85%, 16.3%, and 10.93% reported mild, moderate, severe, and very severe social phobia scores respectively. The number of students reporting very severe social phobia in the academic group is higher than that in the practical group; also, the study shows a significant relation between smartphone addiction and social phobia.
Conclusion and implications
There is a high rate of distribution of social phobia in young adult females, which is accompanied with increased in a high rate of occurrence of smartphone addiction; so, there is a need for raising the public awareness regarding hazards of problematic smartphone use in students and the importance of screening of different psychiatric disorders, as social phobia in such population.
... 2023, 13, 1041 9 of 17 crises such as COVID-19, have been reported to increase not only depressive mood but also anger and fear [167][168][169]. The link between Internet and smartphone use and repetitive thoughts has been reported [170][171][172]. The continuous looping and passive intake of online information on smartphones in fact also show resemblance to the difficulties in breaking away from locked cycles of thoughts and behaviors in rumination. ...
Rumination and its related mental phenomena share associated impairments in cognition, such as executive functions and attentional processes across different clinical conditions (e.g., in psychotic disorders). In recent decades, however, the notion of rumination has been increasingly narrowed to the “self-focused” type in depressive disorders. A closer review of the literature shows that rumination may be construed as a broader process characterized by repetitive thoughts about certain mental contents that interfere with one’s daily activities, not only limited to those related to “self”. A further examination of the construct of rumination beyond the narrowly focused depressive rumination would help expand intervention opportunities for mental disorders in today’s context. We first review the development of the clinical construct of rumination with regard to its historical roots and its roles in psychopathology. This builds the foundation for the introduction of the “Flow Model of Rumination (FMR)”, which conceptualizes rumination as a disruption of a smooth flow of mental contents in conscious experience that depends on the coordinated interactions between intention, memory, affect, and external events. The conceptual review concludes with a discussion of the impact of rapid technological advances (such as smartphones) on rumination. Particularly in contemporary societies today, a broader consideration of rumination not only from a cognition viewpoint, but also incorporating a human–device interaction perspective, is necessitated. The implications of the FMR in contemporary mental health practice are discussed.
... En la Figura 1 puede observarse el proceso de búsqueda y selección de artículos llevado a cabo. La aplicación de los criterios de inclusión tuvo como resultado una base final compuesta por 32 artículos (Buyukbayraktar, 2020;Çatıker et al., 2021;Coskun & Muslu, 2019;Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016;Elhai et al., 2016;Elhai et al., 2018;Elhai et al., 2020a;Elhai et al., 2020b;Elhai et al., 2020c;Fuster et al., 2017;Geng et al., 2021;Gil et al., 2015;Gugushvili et al., 2020;Li et al., 2020;Liu & Ma, 2020;Long et al., 2019;O'Connell, 2020;Santana-Vega et al., 2019;Servidio, 2019;Servidio, 2021;Sha et al., 2019;Traş & Öztemel, 2019;Vally et al., 2021;Wang, Wang, Nie et al., 2019;Wang, Wang, Yang et al., 2019;Wolniewicz et al., 2018;Wolniewicz et al., 2020;Yam & Kumcağız, 2020;Yang et al., 2021;Zhang et al., 2021). ...
El uso problemático del smartphone se ha convertido en un problema de salud a nivel mundial con amplias repercusiones en la salud mental. El objetivo del presente meta-análisis es examinar la relación entre el uso problemático del smartphone y el fear of missing out. Se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica en las bases de datos PsycInfo, Web of Science y PubMed, recuperando un total de 32 artículos que cumplían los criterios de inclusión con una muestra total de 26.077 participantes. El tamaño del efecto obtenido mediante un modelo de efectos aleatorios es significativo y positivo (Zr = 0.47). Los análisis de meta-regresión mostraron que el sexo y la edad no son variables moderadoras estadísticamente significativas. No se obtuvieron evidencias de sesgo de publicación. Aquellos sujetos que muestran mayores puntuaciones de uso problemático del smartphone también presentan mayores niveles de fear of missing out. Se presentan las limitaciones del trabajo. Se señala la necesidad de continuar investigando la relación entre las dos variables, especialmente mediante estudios de tipo longitudinal.
Using descriptive-correlation analysis, this study aimed to determine the effects of fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) behavior in the students' post-purchase experiences regarding post-purchase satisfaction and regret. The respondents were randomly selected from 203 Senior High School students in Divine Word College of San Jose. The data were gathered using a modified-adapted survey questionnaire and tabulated using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r), and Regression Analysis to assess the students' perceived level of FOMO behavior and post-purchase experience in terms of various sub-indicators and the relationship between and among the variables. The findings of this study revealed that FOMO behavior significantly influences the students' purchasing decisions, affecting their post-purchase experiences. Moreover, this study observed higher post-purchase satisfaction than regret when taken alone. However, upon closer look, the study revealed that the relationship between the students' FOMO behavior and post-purchase satisfaction is less significant compared to its association with post-purchase regret, highlighting the importance of perceived opportunity costs in shaping students' post-purchase experiences with their purchasing decisions. Nevertheless, the findings showed that the students experienced regret mainly due to foregone Perez, K. D., Fonollera, K. J. B., Atienza, C. M. M., Sarmiento, D. M. R., Enano, A. S., Ilustre, V. M. V., et al. 68 Consortia Academia Publishing (A Partner of Divine Word College of San Jose) alternatives rather than negative feelings in the social context associated with FOMO. Therefore, utilizing FOMO while prioritizing its perceived value or cost in marketing strategies could help businesses improve post-purchase experiences, leading to satisfaction. Given the findings, further research is needed regarding the other "missing-out" behaviors, like joy-of-missing-out (JOMO), to better understand the effect of these behaviors on post-purchase experiences. Keywords: Fear-of-Missing-Out (FOMO), post-purchase experiences, satisfaction, regret, purchasing decision Fear-of-Missing-Out (FOMO) behavior and post-purchase experiences of senior high school students
O termo saúde mental refere-se a um estado de bem-estar no qual um indivíduo é capaz de lidar eficazmente com as pressões da vida e contribuir positivamente para sua comunidade. A ansiedade é elemento-chave nesse contexto, especialmente na adolescência, em que fatores sociais e o uso das redes sociais podem desempenhar um papel significativo. Portanto, objetivou-se avaliar o impacto das redes sociais na ansiedade dos adolescentes, analisando suas influências e implicações biopsicossociais. Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática do tipo integrativa com a seguinte questão norteadora: o uso das redes sociais impacta na vida dos adolescentes? Esses impactos influenciam os níveis de ansiedade? Quais são as implicações biopsicossociais?” Os artigos foram extraídos das bases de dados U.S. National Library of Medicine e Literatura Latino-americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde. A estratégia de busca, a partir dos Descritores em Ciências da Saúde e da combinação com os operadores booleanos AND e OR. foi << ansiedade AND "redes sociais online" OR "rede social" AND adolescente >>. A seleção dos materiais foi por meio de critérios de inclusão e exclusão. Foram alcançados 707 artigos inicialmente e, dentre eles, 16 selecionados. Os resultados indicaram que o uso excessivo de mídias, a forma de utilização e a dependência podem desencadear sintomas de ansiedade, depressão, distúrbios do sono e comprometimento da saúde física. Embora as redes sociais ofereçam benefícios e facilitem a comunicação, os desafios associados a esses impactos demandam uma investigação mais detalhada e uma abordagem cautelosa.
The rising prevalence of short-form video addiction among adolescents has raised researchers’ concerns. However, the antecedents of adolescents’ short-form video addiction, particularly in relation to the attachments to fathers and mothers, remain inadequately explored. To bridge the gap, this study aimed to explore the relationship between adolescents’ attachment anxiety to fathers/mothers and their short-form video addiction, as well as the mediating role of fear of missing out (FoMO) and the moderating role of gender in these associations. The sample was 4,213 Chinese adolescents (2,001 girls; Mage = 16.41, SDage =.77). The single-group path analysis showed that adolescents’ attachment anxiety to both fathers and mothers positively correlated with their short-form video addiction, and such positive associations were mediated by adolescents’ FoMO. The multiple-group path analysis revealed that adolescent attachment anxiety to fathers directly positively predicted boys’ short-form video addiction (but not girls’), whereas adolescents’ attachment anxiety to mothers directly positively predicted girls’ short-form video addiction (but not boys’). The findings provide innovative insights into how adolescents’ attachment anxiety toward parents relates to their short-form video addiction and could guide corresponding interventions.
This study assessed the interrelationships between smartphone use habits, self-reported dependence and mental health in a cross-sectional study encompassing 1,031 teenagers. The study variables comprised smartphone use/abuse and psychiatric distress signs/symptoms, whose associations were analyzed employing a structural model through structural equation modeling. Early smartphone use by teenagers was negatively and significantly associated to smartphone dependence scores (direct effect) and psychiatric distress symptoms (indirect effect), mediated by cell phone dependence. Furthermore, smartphone addiction led to increased psychiatric distress scores, with a large effect. Thus, it appears that the relationships between smartphone use/abuse and mental health are complex and require further studies to support interventions aimed at teenagers.
Background and aims
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has gained attention, but its definition remains debated. This study aimed to develop and validate a new scale measuring PSU-the Smartphone Use Problems Identification Questionnaire (SUPIQ).
Methods
Using two separate samples, a university community sample ( N = 292) and a general population sample ( N = 397), we investigated: (1) the construct validity of the SUPIQ through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses; (2) the convergent validity of the SUPIQ with correlation analyses and the visualized partial correlation network analyses; (3) the psychometric equivalence of the SUPIQ across two samples through multigroup confirmatory factor analyses; (4) the explanatory power of the SUPIQ over the Short Version of Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV) with hierarchical multiple regressions.
Results
The results showed that the SUPIQ included 26 items and 7 factors (i.e., Craving, Coping, Habitual Use, Social Conflicts, Risky Use, Withdrawal, and Tolerance), with good construct and convergent validity. The configural measurement invariance across samples was established. The SUPIQ also explained more variances in mental health problems than the SAS-SV.
Discussion and conclusions
The findings suggest that the SUPIQ shows promise as a tool for assessing PSU. Further research is needed to enhance and refine the SUPIQ as well as to investigate its clinical utility.
The aim of this study is to find the effect of emotional exhaustion, fear of missing out and social media usage on the mental health of university students. For this purpose, sample of 282 university students studying in different university students were administered with Emotional Exhaustion Scale, Fear of Missing Out Scale, Social Media Usage Scale and Mental Health Scale. This study measures the effect of emotional exhaustion, fear of missing out and social media usage on the mental health with the help of statistical analysis. The results suggests that, emotional exhaustion and fear of missing out is negatively correlated with the mental health and the social media usage is negatively correlated with mental health. Also there is an overall significant relationship between emotional exhaustion, fear of missing out, social media usage and mental health. Apart from this the limitations and practical implications of the study was also discussed.
Despite extensive research on the psychological impacts of digital technology, the nuanced dynamics between adolescent loneliness and problematic smartphone use, particularly across different educational levels and genders, remain underexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by employing a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model to dissect the bidirectional relationship between loneliness and problematic smartphone use among adolescents, with a focus on the moderating roles of educational levels and gender. Engaging 3132 students from various educational institutions in China, the research conducted a three-wave longitudinal analysis across 2022–2023. The final number of participants included 1120 adolescents (53.5% female; age in 2022: M = 14.57 years, SD = 1.57). Results reveal that loneliness significantly predicts problematic smartphone use, but not vice versa, highlighting a unidirectional influence. The study uncovers crucial differences across educational levels and gender, emphasizing the stronger effect of loneliness on problematic smartphone use among junior high students and female adolescents. These findings underscore the complexity of adolescent loneliness and its relationship with digital behavior, suggesting a need for tailored interventions considering both gender and developmental stages.
This study aims to examine technology-dependent behavioral disorders and the effects of these disorders on the quality of life and life satisfaction
of desk workers. The study sample consists of 850 (433 female, 417 male) desk workers. The Turkish Nomophobia Questionnaire, Fear of Missing
Out Scale, Phubbing Scale, European Health Impact Scale and Life Satisfaction Scale were administered to the participants in the questionnaire.
In addition, a question was asked to determine Netlesphobia. Correlation and path analysis were performed to determine the relationship between
them. In the correlation analysis, the quality of life was negatively correlated with nomophobia, phubbing, FoMO, and netlessphobia and positively
correlated with life satisfaction. Pairwise comparisons for all technology-dependent behavioral disorders showed a significant positive correlation.
According to the path analysis, FoMO and netlessphobia reduce the quality of life, and netlessphobia reduces life satisfaction. Phubbing increases
life satisfaction. Researching the effects of rapidly increasing internet and technological device use on individuals will be beneficial in terms of
informing individuals about the correct use and preventing negative consequences that may arise in individuals' quality of life and life satisfaction.
Background
The previous literature has demonstrated that depression, anxiety, and stress are significant predictors of problematic social media use. However, the manifestation of problematic social media use varies, and the predictive relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress with different subgroups of problematic social media use remains unclear. The aim of this research was to evaluate latent subgroups of problematic social media use among college students and to investigate the impact of depression, anxiety, and stress on these latent subgroups.
Methods
A survey was carried out among college students in China using a cross-sectional approach. A total of 955 participants were included, with a mean age of 19.50 ± 1.22 years. Participants completed questionnaires containing the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to investigate latent subgroups of Chinese college students with problematic social media use, and a robust three-step approach was used to develop predictive regression mixed models of depression, anxiety, and stress on latent subgroups.
Results
Problematic social media use of Chinese college students can be categorized into four latent subgroups, namely, the high-risk group, the moderate-risk with pleasure group, the moderate-risk with compulsion group, and the low-risk group. The regression model showed that there was a significant difference between the high-risk group and the low-risk group on the stress scale. There was a significant difference between the moderate-risk with pleasure group and the moderate-risk with compulsion group on the depression scale.
Conclusion
Problematic social media use is heterogeneous, with depression and stress being potentially key factors influencing problematic social media use. Depression would make college students more likely to be moderate-risk with compulsion problematic social media users than moderate-risk with pleasure problematic social media users, and stress would make college students more likely to be high-risk problematic social media users than low-risk problematic social media users.
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is an increasingly prevalent disorder among adolescents. We aimed to identify unique smartphone use profiles and examine whether different parental factors and adolescent smartphone use severity might explain these profiles. The sample comprised 1,187 Israeli families comprising mother/father/adolescent triads (48% boys, 51% girls; ages 14–18). Latent profile analysis identified three distinct profiles of smartphone use: “normative use” (n=435), “mild problematic use” (n=481), and “severe problematic use” (n=271). Subsequent MANOVAs revealed that parents of children with a severe PSU profile reported the highest severity levels, lowest communication, and support provided to their adolescents, and greater tendencies toward restrictive and negative active mediation strategies. These findings were consistent with the adolescents’ perceptions. Fathers of children with a mild problematic use profile reported increased support giving over a six-month period. The research provides a more individualized approach to understanding smartphone use among adolescents.
Social networks are part of daily life, and their use has been growing exponentially. Despite its potential, research has shown that social networks can be enhancers of addition. Psychological well-being can be called into question by the restlessness of the subject caused by the dependence on wanting to be online, particularly in social networks that gives rise to the term FoMO (fear of missing out), explaining the desire to remain online continuously. This chapter characterizes addiction to social networks and its relationship with FoMO. The concept of FoMO is discussed and explanatory theories. Some measures will be presented. Individual, intrafamilial, and extrafamilial characteristics associated with fear of missing out will be analyzed. The consequences of FoMO in different areas of the individual's life are presented. Some strategies for managing digital technologies to minimize this symptomatology will be discussed.
During the Pandemic when humans had to hide amidst four walls, social media had become the way of escape for everyone to stay in touch with the world outside. It helped youth to stay connected with their friends, to continue with their education and find recreational activities online. As much as it allowed youth to find their solace, it had also left some negative impact on the youth’s psychological wellbeing. The following research papers highlight the impact of social media during the pandemic on youth.
With the increasing use of technology, different psychological effects of social media emerge. These psychological effects can be negative as well as positive, and in general psychological well-being and different psychological variables related to social media can affect the daily life of individuals. Also, new constructs associated with social media, such as anonymity, have begun to show up as people seek the protection of their identities online. This study aims to determine the moderating role of anonymity in the relationship between FoMO and psychological well-being. The sample of this study consisted of 232 participants (69.8 % female) between the ages of 18-59. Two different scales were used in this study: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and Psychological Well-being. In addition, to measure anonymity, participants were asked a single question about whether they use anonymous accounts on social media. The analysis of the study found a positive and significant relationship between FoMO and anonymity as well as a negative and significant relationship between psychological well-being and anonymity.
Moreover, the results indicated that anonymity moderated the relationship between FoMO and psychological well-being. That is, FoMO was negatively associated with psychological well-being for individuals with anonymous accounts, while there was no significant relationship between FoMO and psychological well-being for those without anonymous accounts. The limitations and contributions of the study were discussed in line with the relevant literature, and suggestions for future research were presented.
Socially anxious individuals avoid face-to-face communication by increasing their use of mobile phones. The relationship between anxiety and problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity has been studied; however, the association between social anxiety and problematic smartphone use, especially regarding psychological, cognitive and behavioral risk factors, requires further verification. The aim of the current study was to investigate the mediating role of smartphone use and rumination in the relationship between social anxiety and PSU. We recruited 825 Chinese undergraduate students by convenience sampling via a web-based survey that measured social anxiety (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, SIAS), PSU(Smartphone addiction scale-short version, SAS-SV), smartphone use (two questions about smartphone use time) and rumination (Rumination scale). Seven hundred twenty-one valid questionnaires were obtained (74.5% male). A significant positive correlation between social anxiety and PSU (β = 0.1001, p < 0.001) was observed. Smartphone use and rumination mediated social anxiety and PSU severity. In the final model, smartphone use and rumination played a serial mediating role in the social anxiety and PSU relationship. Thus, future research should focus on rumination and its association with smartphone use.
Across the multitude of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) research, the common notion is that FoMO is a dispositional trait which is generally stable over time. However, provided FoMO is conceptualized as a form of an anxiety regarding the concern one is absent from a rewarding experience, and how anxiety is quantified as both a state and trait, FoMO could also be studied as a behavioral state. Moreover, research has proposed situational factors, such as the level of entertainment one is currently experiencing, could influence the extent someone experiences FoMO at that moment. This in turn, suggests temporary fluctuations in FoMO severity occur and viewing FoMO merely as a trait is not adequate. To measure state FoMO, the State Fear of Missing Out Inventory (SFoMOI) was developed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and derived a one-factor unidimensional scale of 8 items. Support for convergent, discriminate, and criterion validity was found, and the SFoMOI was sensitive to detect differences in participants primed for the experience of FoMO and those who were not. Lastly, the measure had excellent internal reliability. Suggestions for future use and limitations of the SFoMOI are outlined.
The symbolic collection technology has greatly simplified information preservation in social media, resulting in an overwhelming amount of users’ “favorites” collections. Digital hoarding, a new problematic use in hedonic social media, has gradually appeared as a serious phenomenon nowadays. This study aims to investigate the mechanism underlying digital hoarding in the hedonic context, exploring the causes of digital hoarding and how it is exacerbated in social media. First, we draw on the conceptual lens of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) to understand the generation mechanism of digital hoarding in social media. Meanwhile, we consider the moderating effect of social media affordances between the relationship of FoMO and digital hoarding from a human-information interaction perspective. Our preliminary study collected 233 valid questionnaires and tested the hypotheses by partial least squares structural equation modeling. The tentative findings show that FoMO has a significant positive effect on digital hoarding, which is strengthened by content sharing affordance. Moreover, information anxiety and attachment anxiety can strongly predict FoMO. Finally, we discuss the potential contributions and future directions of this work.
Based on the self-determination theory, this study compared the offline and online need satisfaction during the COVID-19 period and investigated how the fulfilment experienced in the different settings affected an individual's smartphone use outcomes. 546 Chinese undergraduate students participated in the study and were measured with their levels of offline and online basic need satisfaction, smartphone use patterns, and problematic smartphone use. The results showed that offline basic need satisfaction negatively predicted problematic smartphone use via the information seeking pattern, whereas online basic need satisfaction positively predicted problematic smartphone use via the use patterns of transaction and entertainment. Our study expands the research scope of the pertinent topic and pinpoints the mechanism between the basic need satisfaction and problematic smartphone use.
This study introduces the statistical theory of using the Standardized Root Mean Squared Error (SRMR) to test close fit in ordinal factor analysis. We also compare the accuracy of confidence intervals (CIs) and tests of close fit based on the SRMR with those obtained based on the Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA). The current (biased) implementation for the RMSEA never rejects that a model fits closely when data are binary and almost invariably rejects the model in large samples if data consist of five categories. The unbiased RMSEA produces better rejection rates, but it is only accurate enough when the number of variables is small and the degree of misfit is small. In contrast, across all simulated conditions, the tests of close fit based on the SRMR yield acceptable type I error rates. SRMR tests of close fit are also more powerful than those using the unbiased RMSEA.
Introduction:
Prior research has found that psychopathology constructs such as depression and anxiety are associated with problematic use of Facebook (PFU). In the present study, we examined a structural equation model whereby depression, social anxiety and lower life satisfaction predicted PFU severity, while analyzing mediating variables including rumination, fear of missing out (FoMO), and frequency of Facebook use, as well as age and gender as covariates.
Method:
Participants were 296 college students administered a web survey of instruments measuring these constructs.
Results:
Modeling results demonstrate that FoMO and rumination were significantly related to PFU severity. Facebook use frequency was related to PFU severity. FoMO and rumination each mediated relations between social anxiety and PFU severity.
Conclusions:
Results are discussed in the context of prior work on FoMO and excessive technology use, as well as several relevant theoretical frameworks.
Aims
In light of the rise in research on technological addictions and smartphone addiction in particular, the aim of this paper was to review the relevant literature on the topic of smartphone addiction and determine whether this disorder exists or if it does not adequately satisfy the criteria for addiction.
Methods
We reviewed quantitative and qualitative studies on smartphone addiction and analyzed their methods and conclusions to make a determination on the suitability of the diagnosis “addiction” to excessive and problematic smartphone use.
Results
Although the majority of research in the field declares that smartphones are addictive or takes the existence of smartphone addiction as granted, we did not find sufficient support from the addiction perspective to confirm the existence of smartphone addiction at this time. The behaviors observed in the research could be better labeled as problematic or maladaptive smartphone use and their consequences do not meet the severity levels of those caused by addiction.
Discussion and conclusions
Addiction is a disorder with severe effects on physical and psychological health. A behavior may have a similar presentation as addiction in terms of excessive use, impulse control problems, and negative consequences, but that does not mean that it should be considered an addiction. We propose moving away from the addiction framework when studying technological behaviors and using other terms such as “problematic use” to describe them. We recommend that problematic technology use is to be studied in its sociocultural context with an increased focus on its compensatory functions, motivations, and gratifications.
BACKGROUND: Cyberbullying, has concerned professionals due to increased use of media over time and as predicted, this type of bullying is fairly common among adolescents. We aimed to define the prevalence of cyberbullying and cyber victimization, examine relationships between problematic smartphone (SP) use (PSU), psychiatric symptoms and emotion regulation difficulties in a clinical adolescent sample. Also, we aimed to predict risk factors of being an E-Victim and E-Bully.
METHODS: One hundred and fifty adolescents have recruited the study. Demographic Information Form, Problematic Mobile Phone Usage Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, E-Victimization–E-Bullying Scale were filled out by adolescents.
RESULTS: Our results indicated that the prevalence of cybervictimization and cyberbullying were 62.6% and 53.3%, respectively. BEVEB (Both E-Victim and E-Bully) group adolescents were older than NVB (Non-Victim/Bully) groups. Access internet via own SP, PSU, problems in strategies and impulse control and were significantly higher and “lack of awareness” scores were significantly lower in BEVEB group than others. In addition, when compared with OEV (only E-Victims) group, BEVEB group had also higher hostility scores. Logistic regression analysis revealed that high scores of “lack of awareness” and higher E-bullying scores increase the risk of being an E-Victim; and higher scores of hostility and E-victimization and lower scores of “lack of awareness” (in other words being more aware of feelings) increase the risk of being an E-bully.
CONCLUSIONS: According to analyses, contrary to our expectations, PSU was important but not an independent predictor of being an E-Victim/E-Bully. Our results also demonstrated an interesting finding: lack of awareness is a risk factor for being an E-victim. We interpreted this result as could not be aware of feelings increase the victimization risk. On the other hand, E-Bullies have higher hostility and victimization while having lower “lack of awareness” scores. It could be speculated that, re-victimization and being aware of hostility feelings could increase the cyberbullying among adolescents. In addition being an E-Bully could be a consequence of being an E-victim and increasing hostility and awareness over time. These results should be re-examined in larger clinical samples.
Fear of missing out, known colloquially as FOMO, appears to be a common experience, and has recently become part of the vernacular, receiving frequent mentions in the popular media. The present paper provides a multi-method empirical examination of FOMO. In a first study, experience sampling was used to assess FOMO experiences among college freshmen. Nightly diaries and end-of-semester measures provided data on the short and long-term consequences of experiencing FOMO. Results showed that students experience FOMO frequently, particularly later in the day and later in the week, and while doing a required task like studying or working. More frequent experiences of FOMO were associated with negative outcomes both daily and over the course of the semester, including increasing negative affect, fatigue, stress, physical symptoms, and decreased sleep. A second experimental study investigated FOMO on a conceptual level, distinguishing FOMO from general self-regulation and exploring its links with social media.
Background
Addicted Internet users present with higher rates of comorbidities, e.g., attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depressive, and anxiety disorders. In addition, deficits in self-concept-related characteristics were found in addicted Internet gamers and social network users. The aim of this study was to examine the links between healthy, problematic, and addicted Internet use regarding comorbidities and self-concept-related characteristics. The association between recently developed ADHD-like symptoms without an underlying diagnosis and addictive Internet use was also examined.
Methods
n = 79 healthy controls, n = 35 problematic, and n = 93 addicted Internet users were assessed for comorbidities, social and emotional competencies, body image, self-esteem, and perceived stress. Apart from an ADHD-diagnosis, recently developed ADHD-like symptoms were also assessed.
Results
Addicted users showed more self-concept-related deficits and higher rates of comorbidities with ADHD, depressive, and anxiety disorders. Addicted and problematic users showed similarities in the prevalence of cluster B personality disorders and decreased levels of characteristics related to emotional intelligence. Participants with recently developed ADHD-like symptoms scored higher in lifetime and current severity of Internet use compared with those without ADHD symptoms. Addicted participants with recently developed ADHD symptoms showed higher lifetime Internet use severity compared with those without any symptoms.
Conclusions
Our findings indicate that cluster B personality disorders and premorbid problems in emotional intelligence might present a link between problematic and addictive Internet use. Furthermore, the findings provide a first indication that addictive Internet use is related to ADHD-like symptoms. Symptoms of ADHD should therefore be assessed against the background of possible addicted Internet use.
The advent of the smartphone has dramatically altered how we communicate, navigate, work and entertain ourselves. While the advantages of this new technology are clear, constant use may also bring negative consequences, such as a loss of productivity due to interruptions in work life. A link between smartphone overuse and loss of productivity has often been hypothesized, but empirical evidence on this question is scarce. The present study addressed this question by collecting self-report data from N = 262 participants, assessing private and work-related smartphone use, smartphone addiction and self-rated productivity. Our results indicate a moderate relationship between smartphone addiction and a self-reported decrease in productivity due to spending time on the smartphone during work, as well as with the number of work hours lost to smartphone use. Smartphone addiction was also related to a greater amount of leisure time spent on the smartphone and was strongly related to a negative impact of smartphone use on daily non-work related activities. These data support the idea that tendencies towards smartphone addiction and overt checking of the smartphone could result in less productivity both in the workplace and at home. Results are discussed in relation to productivity and technostress.
Background and aims: Fear of missing out (FoMO) is described as a pervasive unpleasant sensation that others might be having rewarding experiences of which one is not part, as well as the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. It has shown to play an important mediating role in predicting negative outcomes of heavy use of these networks. The aim of the present study was to analyze the different profiles found among users. Methods: 5,280 Spanish speaking social media users from Latin America replied in an online survey to the Spanish version of the FoMO scale, to a short set of questionnaires on online social network use (frequency, intensity and type of access) and indicators of mobile phone addiction. Results: FoMO correlated with the number of different networks used and with all indicators of social network use and mobile phone addiction. Using a Latent Profile Analysis, four classes of users were identified: low-engagement light users, high-engagement heavy users, high-engagement low-risk users, and high-engagement high-risk users; individuals from the fourth class can be considered at risk for developing addiction to online social networks (7.6 % of the sample). Discussion: Accessing the social networks via the mobile phone and presenting addictive behavior seem to be important correlates of FoMO.
Some of the most frequently used online applications are Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. These applications allow individuals to communicate with other users, to share information or pictures, and to stay in contact with friends all over the world. However, a growing number of users suffer from negative consequences due to their excessive use of these applications, which can be referred to as Internet-communication disorder. The frequent use and easy access of these applications may also trigger the individual's fear of missing out on content when not accessing these applications. Using a sample of 271 participants, a structural equation model was analyzed to investigate the role of psychopathological symptoms and the fear of missing out on expectancies towards Internet-communication applications in the development of symptoms of an Internet-communication disorder. The results suggest that psychopathological symptoms predict higher fear of missing out on the individual's Internet-communication applications and higher expectancies to use these applications as a helpful tool to escape from negative feelings. These specific cognitions mediate the effect of psychopathological symptoms on Internet-communication disorder. Our results are in line with the theoretical model by Brand et al. (2016) as they show how Internet-related cognitive bias mediates the relationship between a person's core characteristics (e.g., psychopathological symptoms) and Internet-communication disorder. However, further studies should investigate the role of the fear of missing out as a specific predisposition, as well as specific cognition in the online context.
Online social networks (OSNs) continue to have a transformative influence on how people socialize, partially because they help facilitate social contact that is crucial to fulfilling an innate need to belong. However, there is increasing evidence that some users suffer from OSN addiction, expressed as OSN obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Using the need-to-belong theory as our foundation, we seek a deeper understanding of the relationship between OSN belongingness and OSN OCD by examining the effects OSN-specific uses and gratifications (U&Gs) and negative emotions have on it. We find that OSN belongingness is positively associated with use of the OSN to gratify needs for purposive value, self-discovery, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social enhancement, and entertainment value. However, gratification of only the purposive value and social enhancement needs increase the likelihood of OSN OCD. Furthermore, we find that while OSN belongingness decreases the likelihood of OSN envy and anxiety, it slightly increases the likelihood of OSN fear of missing out; notably, all three of these negative emotions drive OSN OCD. Our findings indicate healthy socialization use by well-adjusted individuals decreases OSN OCD risks, but those experiencing unstable emotional responses or unhealthy socialization on the OSN should avoid use.
Social networking sites (SNS) are especially attractive for adolescents, but it has also been shown that these users can suffer from negative psychological consequences when using these sites excessively. We analyze the role of fear of missing out (FOMO) and intensity of SNS use for explaining the link between psychopathological symptoms and negative consequences of SNS use via mobile devices. In an online survey, 1468 Spanish-speaking Latin-American social media users between 16 and 18 years old completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Social Networking Intensity scale (SNI), the FOMO scale (FOMOs), and a questionnaire on negative consequences of using SNS via mobile device (CERM). Using structural equation modeling, it was found that both FOMO and SNI mediate the link between psychopathology and CERM, but by different mechanisms. Additionally, for girls, feeling depressed seems to trigger higher SNS involvement. For boys, anxiety triggers higher SNS involvement.
We present a review of the studies that have been published about addiction to cell phones. We analyze the concept of cell-phone addiction as well as its prevalence, study methodologies, psychological features, and associated psychiatric comorbidities. Research in this field has generally evolved from a global view of the cell phone as a device to its analysis via applications and contents. The diversity of criteria and methodological approaches that have been used is notable, as is a certain lack of conceptual delimitation that has resulted in a broad spread of prevalent data. There is a consensus about the existence of cell-phone addiction, but the delimitation and criteria used by various researchers vary. Cell-phone addiction shows a distinct user profile that differentiates it from Internet addiction. Without evidence pointing to the influence of cultural level and socioeconomic status, the pattern of abuse is greatest among young people, primarily females. Intercultural and geographical differences have not been sufficiently studied. The problematic use of cell phones has been associated with personality variables, such as extraversion, neuroticism, self-esteem, impulsivity, self-identity, and self-image. Similarly, sleep disturbance, anxiety, stress, and, to a lesser extent, depression, which are also associated with Internet abuse, have been associated with problematic cell-phone use. In addition, the present review reveals the coexistence relationship between problematic cell-phone use and substance use such as tobacco and alcohol.
Within the last two decades, many studies have addressed the clinical phenomenon of Internet-use disorders, with a particular focus on Internet-gaming disorder. Based on previous theoretical considerations and empirical findings, we suggest an Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model of specific Internet-use disorders. The I-PACE model is a theoretical framework for the processes underlying the development and maintenance of an addictive use of certain Internet applications or sites promoting gaming, gambling, pornography viewing, shopping, or communication. The model is composed as a process model. Specific Internet-use disorders are considered to be the consequence of interactions between predisposing factors, such as neurobiological and psychological constitutions, moderators, such as coping styles and Internet-related cognitive biases, and mediators, such as affective and cognitive responses to situational triggers in combination with reduced executive functioning. Conditioning processes may strengthen these associations within an addiction process. Although the hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders, summarized in the I-PACE model, must be further tested empirically, implications for treatment interventions are suggested.
Method:
We conducted a systematic review of the relationship between problematic use
with psychopathology. Using scholarly bibliographic databases, we screened 117
total citations, resulting in 23 peer-reviewer papers examining statistical relations
between standardized measures of problematic smartphone use/use severity
and the severity of psychopathology.
Results:
Most papers examined problematic use in relation to depression, anxiety, chronic
stress and/or low self-esteem. Across this literature, without statistically adjusting
for other relevant variables, depression severity was consistently related to
problematic smartphone use, demonstrating at least medium effect sizes. Anxiety
was also consistently related to problem use, but with small effect sizes. Stress
was somewhat consistently related, with small to medium effects. Self-esteem
was inconsistently related, with small to medium effects when found. Statistically
adjusting for other relevant variables yielded similar but somewhat smaller
effects.
Limitations:
We only included correlational studies in our systematic review, but address the
few relevant experimental studies also.
Conclusions:
We discuss causal explanations for relationships between problem smartphone
use and psychopathology.
Smartphone addiction has been widely researched in recent years, and the effects of various demographic, personality-linked, psychological, and emotional variables, have been found. Our research goal was to examine this phenomenon from the cross-generational perspective and compare the factors that can predict smartphone addiction for different age groups. We conducted a study with 216 Israeli smartphone users, representing three generations of smartphone users: Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z, who filled in an 80-item questionnaire. The factors examined included the social environment pressure to use smartphone, emotional gain from smartphones, personality, daily usage time, various mobile apps and user needs. The main finding of the study is that a significantly higher level of addictive behavior was found for Generation Y compared to the other two generations. The strongest predictive factors in the computed hierarchical regression model for all three generations were social environment pressure and emotional gain. Interestingly, emotional gain from smartphone use, which reflects users' enjoyment and positive emotions along with relief of negative emotions and psychological states, was significantly higher for generation Z than for the older generations. In addition, neuroticism and the daily usage time appeared as predictive factors for the younger generations, and for Generation Z alone the WhatsApp app usage was found as a significant predictive factor as well. This study contributes to understanding the factors of smartphone addictive behavior for different generations, which might lead to more effective educational measures and explanatory campaigns on technology effects on psychological well-being.
Psychologists and psychiatrists commonly rely on self-reports or interviews to diagnose or treat behavioral addictions. The present study introduces a novel source of data: recordings of the actual problem behavior under investigation. A total of N = 58 participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire measuring problematic mobile phone behavior featuring several questions on weekly phone usage. After filling in the questionnaire, all participants received an application to be installed on their smartphones, which recorded their phone usage for five weeks. The analyses revealed that weekly phone usage in hours was overestimated; in contrast, numbers of call and text message related variables were underestimated. Importantly, several associations between actual usage and being addicted to mobile phones could be derived exclusively from the recorded behavior, but not from self-report variables. The study demonstrates the potential benefit to include methods of psychoinformatics in the diagnosis and treatment of problematic mobile phone use.
Abstract Based on a sample of 944 respondents who were recruited from 20 elementary schools in South Korea, this research surveyed the factors that lead to smartphone addiction. This research examined the user characteristics and media content types that can lead to addiction. With regard to user characteristics, results showed that those who have lower self-control and those who have greater stress were more likely to be addicted to smartphones. For media content types, those who use smartphones for SNS, games, and entertainment were more likely to be addicted to smartphones, whereas those who use smartphones for study-related purposes were not. Although both SNS use and game use were positive predictors of smartphone addiction, SNS use was a stronger predictor of smartphone addiction than game use.
Despite the many positive outcomes, excessive mobile phone use is now often associated with potentially harmful and/or disturbing behaviors (e.g., symptoms of deregulated use, negative impact on various aspects of daily life such as relationship problems and work intrusion). Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) has generally been considered as a behavioral addiction that shares many features with more established drug addictions. In light of the most recent data, the current paper reviews the validity of the behavioral addiction model when applied to PMPU. On the whole, it is argued that the evidence supporting PMPU as an addictive behavior is scarce. In particular, it lacks studies that definitively show behavioral and neurobiological similarities between mobile phone addiction and other types of legitimate addictive behaviors. Given this context, an integrative pathway model is proposed that aims to provide a theoretical framework to guide future research in the field of PMPU. This model highlights that PMPU is a heterogeneous and multi-faceted condition.
Adolescence is a time of increasing vulnerability for poor mental health, including depression. Sleep disturbance is an important risk factor for the development of depression during adolescence. Excessive electronic media use at night is a risk factor for both adolescents' sleep disturbance and depression. To better understand the interplay between sleep, depressive symptoms, and electronic media use at night, this study examined changes in adolescents' electronic media use at night and sleep associated with smartphone ownership. Also examined was whether sleep disturbance mediated the relationship between electronic media use at night and depressive symptoms. 362 adolescents (12-17 year olds, M = 14.8, SD = 1.3; 44.8 % female) were included and completed questionnaires assessing sleep disturbance (short sleep duration and sleep difficulties) and depressive symptoms. Further, participants reported on their electronic media use in bed before sleep such as frequency of watching TV or movies, playing video games, talking or text messaging on the mobile phone, and spending time online. Smartphone ownership was related to more electronic media use in bed before sleep, particularly calling/sending messages and spending time online compared to adolescents with a conventional mobile phone. Smartphone ownership was also related to later bedtimes while it was unrelated to sleep disturbance and symptoms of depression. Sleep disturbance partially mediated the relationship between electronic media use in bed before sleep and symptoms of depression. Electronic media use was negatively related with sleep duration and positively with sleep difficulties, which in turn were related to depressive symptoms. Sleep difficulties were the more important mediator than sleep duration. The results of this study suggest that adolescents might benefit from education regarding sleep hygiene and the risks of electronic media use at night.
This study was designed to investigate the revised and short version of the smartphone addiction scale and the proof of its validity in adolescents. In addition, it suggested cutting off the values by gender in order to determine smartphone addiction and elaborate the characteristics of smartphone usage in adolescents.
A set of questionnaires were provided to a total of 540 selected participants from April to May of 2013. The participants consisted of 343 boys and 197 girls, and their average age was 14.5 years old. The content validity was performed on a selection of shortened items, while an internal-consistency test was conducted for the verification of its reliability. The concurrent validity was confirmed using SAS, SAPS and KS-scale. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was conducted to suggest cut-off.
The 10 final questions were selected using content validity. The internal consistency and concurrent validity of SAS were verified with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.911. The SAS-SV was significantly correlated with the SAS, SAPS and KS-scale. The SAS-SV scores of gender (p<.001) and self-evaluation of smartphone addiction (p<.001) showed significant difference. The ROC analysis results showed an area under a curve (AUC) value of 0.963(0.888-1.000), a cut-off value of 31, sensitivity value of 0.867 and specificity value of 0.893 in boys while an AUC value of 0.947(0.887-1.000), a cut-off value of 33, sensitivity value of 0.875, and a specificity value of 0.886 in girls.
The SAS-SV showed good reliability and validity for the assessment of smartphone addiction. The smartphone addiction scale short version, which was developed and validated in this study, could be used efficiently for the evaluation of smartphone addiction in community and research areas.
People around the world spend hours of their daily lives using smartphones; therefore, it is important to conduct cross-cultural research on the effects of smartphone use on health and well-being as culture influences values, motivations and communication patterns. The purpose of this study was to explore 5 popular uses of the smartphone-messaging, browsing the Internet, posting social content, reading social content, and playing games-how they relate to anxiety and depression scores, and how they vary depending on the country of the participants: Spain,
Aside from depression and anxiety, less is known about problematic smartphone use’s (PSU) relations with other psychopathology-related variables. Our aim was to test previously neglected variables in relation to PSU – rumination and excessive reassurance seeking behavior (ERSB). We recruited 295 college students for a web-based survey of smartphone use frequency, PSU, depression and anxiety, ruminative thinking, and ERSB. We tested linear regression and mediation models, assessing rumination and ERSB as mediating associations between depression/anxiety severity with PSU, adjusting for age, sex, and smartphone use frequency. Results demonstrate that ERSB was significantly related to PSU severity, and ERSB mediated the association between rumination and PSU. Furthermore, the combination of rumination and ERSB mediated relations between both depression and anxiety severity with PSU. Results provide evidence for ERSB as an important variable in understanding relationships between psychopathology symptoms and PSU severity among college students.
Background: Fear of missing out (FOMO) has been increasingly researched recently, especially in relation to negative affectivity constructs. Our aim was to examine relations between FOMO and repeated measurements of negative affect over one week. Method: We investigated associations between FOMO and prospectively-measured negative affect over one week in an experience sampling study of 93 undergraduate students. Participants completed an initial web survey assessing depression, anxiety and FOMO. Over the week, participants responded to daily text messages, assessing negative affect from earlier in the day. Results: On a bivariate basis, FOMO, depression and anxiety severity were related to daily negative affect assessments. Using multivariate growth modeling, higher initial negative affect was related to decreasing negative affect over the week. Female sex and higher anxiety related to higher initial negative affect ratings. Higher FOMO levels related to increasing negative affect over the week. Limitations: Findings were based on self-report methodology, using university students and only one week of measurement. Conclusions: Results suggest that women and more anxious individuals had higher initial negative affect, while FOMO predicted increasing negative affect over the week. Results advance understanding of FOMO in relation to psychopathology,
and are discussed in the context of Self-Determination Theory.
Depression and anxiety severity are found in numerous studies to correlate with increased levels of problematic smartphone use. Yet there are less available data on other psychopathology-related correlates of such use. Two potentially important variables related to depression and anxiety, and recently found related to problematic smartphone use severity, are boredom proneness and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Our aims were to (a) assess boredom proneness and FOMO in relation to problematic smartphone use severity and (b) assess the mediating roles of boredom proneness and FOMO in relationships between depression/anxiety severity with problematic smartphone use severity. We recruited 297 American college students for a web survey, assessing constructs including FOMO, boredom proneness, depression , anxiety, problematic smartphone use, and smartphone use frequency. We tested a structural equation model to assess relations between depression and anxiety severity with boredom proneness and FOMO, and relations between these psy-chopathology constructs with levels of smartphone use frequency and problematic use. Results demonstrate that FOMO was significantly related to problematic smartphone use severity. FOMO also mediated relations between boredom prone-ness and problematic smartphone use severity. Furthermore, boredom proneness and FOMO serially mediated relations between both depression and anxiety severity with problematic smartphone use severity. Results are discussed in the context of Compensatory Internet Use Theory and the I-PACE model in understanding factors driving problematic smartphone use. K E Y W O R D S anxiety, boredom, depression, fear of missing out, internet addiction, psychopathology, smartphone addiction
We propose an updated version of the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, which we argue to be valid for several types of addictive behaviors, such as gambling, gaming, buying-shopping, and compulsive sexual behavior disorders. Based on recent empirical findings and theoretical considerations, we argue that addictive behaviors develop as a consequence of the interactions between predisposing variables, affective and cognitive responses to specific stimuli, and executive functions, such as inhibitory control and decision-making. In the process of addictive behaviors, the associations between cue-reactivity/craving and diminished inhibitory control contribute to the development of habitual behaviors. An imbalance between structures of fronto-striatal circuits, particularly between ventral striatum, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal areas, may be particularly relevant to early stages and the dorsal striatum to later stages of addictive processes. The I-PACE model may provide a theoretical foundation for future studies on addictive behaviors and clinical practice. Future studies should investigate common and unique mechanisms involved in addictive, obsessive-compulsive-related, impulse-control, and substance-use disorders.
Introduction:
Recently studies examined mediating psychological constructs accounting for relations between both depression and anxiety with problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity. The aim of the current study was to analyze the fear of missing out (FOMO) as a possible mediator in these relationships.
Method:
We recruited 1034 Chinese undergraduate students via a web-based survey that measured smartphone use frequency, PSU, depression, anxiety and FOMO.
Results:
Structural equation modeling demonstrated that FOMO was significantly related to smartphone use frequency and PSU severity. FOMO significantly mediated relations between anxiety and both smartphone use frequency and PSU severity. FOMO did not account for relations between depression and smartphone use/PSU.
Conclusion:
This is one of the first studies testing FOMO in relation to PSU severity among Asian participants. FOMO may be an important variable accounting for why some types of psychopathology (e.g., anxiety) are associated with PSU.
Background:
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is associated with depression and anxiety symptom severity throughout the literature. However, many important psychopathology constructs have not been examined for associations with PSU severity. Worry and anger are two psychopathology constructs receiving little empirical scrutiny in relation to PSU, but theoretically should demonstrate significant relationships. Furthermore, few studies have used person-centered analyses, such as mixture modeling, to analyze possible latent subgroups of individuals based on PSU symptom ratings.
Method:
We conducted a web survey of 300 American college students, using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version, Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated Version, and Dimensions of Anger Reactions-5 Scale.
Results:
Conducting mixture modeling using latent profile analysis, we found most support for a three-class model of latent groups of individuals based on their PSU item ratings. Adjusting for age and sex, worry and anger scores were significantly higher in the more severe PSU classes.
Discussion:
Results are discussed in the context of uses and gratifications theory, as well as compensatory internet use theory, in terms of individual differences explaining excessive technology use.
Limitations:
Limitations include the non-clinical nature of the sample.
Conclusions:
Worry and anger may be helpful constructs in understanding the phenomenology of PSU, and psychological interventions for worry and anger may offset PSU.
Problematic mobile phone use is an important problem which has increasing prevalence among adolescents. We
should address risk factors to create intervention frameworks related to this problem. In this study, we aimed to
determine the prevalence of problematic smartphone use among adolescents who were referred to clinics, its
relationship to sociodemographic characteristics, psychiatric symptoms and emotion regulation problems. We
included 150 adolescents aged 12–18 years who own smartphones. All participants filled out the
Sociodemographic Information Form, Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale
(DERS) and Problematic Mobile Phone Use Scale (PMPUS). Problematic smart phone use was detected in 50.6%
of the sample. Adolescents with problematic use were found to be older than the others, with lower levels of
maternal education and self-achievement. Regression analysis revealed that the factors predicting the risk of
problematic smartphone use are somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and hostility symptoms. According to our
results, we suggest psychiatrists consider the high prevalence of problematic smartphone use, address the relationship
between hostility, somatic symptoms and interpersonal sensitivity (susceptibility) and the effects of
this current problem on social-academic functioning while evaluating and treating adolescents.
with psychopathology-related and technology use measures. We carried out an internet-based survey with 296
undergraduate participants and administered self-report questionnaires of FOMO, frequency and type of
smartphone use, problematic smartphone use (PSU), and scales of negative affectivity including depression,
anxiety, stress, proneness to boredom, and rumination. The results demonstrated that FOMO was related to
demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, and relationship status) but with small effect sizes. FOMO was
related to all measures of negative affectivity, social use of a smartphone, as well as the severity of PSU. Tests of
mediation indicated that each negative affectivity construct mediated the relationship between FOMO and PSU
severity, and only rumination mediated relations between FOMO and smartphone use frequency. When reversing
the predictor and mediating variables, FOMO mediated relations between negative affectivity and PSU
severity. Finally, results demonstrated some support for a single-factor latent construct for FOMO, but male and
female participants had a different pattern of factor loadings. Negative affectivity may be a key mechanism by
which FOMO may drive PSU, but future research should clarify the directionality among these variables. Genderrelated
social connectedness differences characterize FOMO.
This study examined the structural relationship between avoidant attachment, self-esteem, anxiety, and smartphone addiction in college students. We hypothesized that avoidant attachment would predict smartphone addiction, and that this relationship would be mediated by self-esteem and anxiety. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the indirect relationship between avoidant attachment and smartphone addiction through anxiety and self-esteem. Participants were 313 college students at a large-sized private university in Korea. Participants responded to an attachment, anxiety, and smartphone addiction questionnaire. The paths between avoidant attachment and self-esteem, self-esteem and anxiety, self-esteem and smartphone addiction, and anxiety and smartphone addiction were statistically significant. However, in contrast to our expectations, neither avoidant attachment nor avoidant attachment-smartphone addiction pathways were significant. The association between avoidant attachment and smartphone addiction was fully mediated by anxiety and self-esteem. We suggest that avoidant attachment may lead to low self-esteem and anxiety, which in turn may lead to smartphone addiction.
Excessive, problematic smartphone use (PSU) has demonstrated relationships with depression and anxiety severity across studies. However, less is known about psychopathology-related variables that may mediate relations between depression/anxiety with PSU – especially variables involving emotional regulation processes. We recruited 261 college students for a repeated-measures web survey, administered self-report measures of depression, anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, mindfulness, smartphone use frequency, and PSU; one month later, participants completed these measures again. We tested a model where depression severity and anxiety sensitivity predicted distress tolerance and mindfulness, in turn predicting smartphone use frequency, and one-month PSU severity, adjusting for age and sex. Distress tolerance and mindfulness were inversely associated with levels of PSU. Distress tolerance mediated relations between anxiety sensitivity and levels of PSU. Mindfulness mediated relations between both depression and anxiety sensitivity with PSU severity. Results are discussed in the context of emotion regulation theory and compensatory internet use theory, with clinical implications for emotion regulation skills training and mindfulness in offsetting PSU.
Purpose
Previous research has found support for depression and anxiety severity in association with both increased and problematic smartphone use. However, little research has explored transdiagnostic psychopathology constructs as mediators that may account for these relationships. Our primary aim was to test rumination as a possible transdiagnostic (cross-sectional) mediator in these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
We recruited 296 college students to complete relevant web survey measures, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (for depression severity), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (for social anxiety severity), Ruminative Thought Styles Questionnaire, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (to measure levels of problematic smartphone use), and a measure of smartphone use frequency.
Findings
We found support for a structural model whereby the severity of depression and social anxiety accounted for variance in rumination, which in turn correlated with problematic smartphone use levels. Rumination accounted for relations between both depression and social anxiety severity with levels of problematic use.
Originality/value
We discuss the role of rumination as a possible mechanism between anxiety- and depression-related psychopathology levels with problematic smartphone use severity. This study is unique in exploring rumination in the context of problematic smartphone use.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites. The present paper examines the relations between fear of missing out, narcissism, Facebook intrusion, and life satisfaction. We hypothesized that the fear of missing out and narcissism would play a significant role in Facebook intrusion. The participants in the study were 360 Polish users of Facebook. We administered the Facebook Intrusion Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The results showed that a high level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are predictors of Facebook intrusion, while a low level of fear of missing out and high narcissism are related to satisfaction with life. Our findings provide a more comprehensive picture of the predictors of Facebook intrusion and reveal interesting patterns.
For many individuals, excessive smartphone use interferes with everyday life. In the present study, we recruited a non-clinical sample of 296 participants for a cross-sectional survey of problematic smartphone use, social and non-social smartphone use, and psychopathology-related constructs including negative affect, fear of negative and positive evaluation, and fear of missing out (FoMO). Results demonstrated that FoMO was most strongly related to both problematic smartphone use and social smartphone use relative to negative affect and fears of negative and positive evaluation, and these relations held when controlling for age and gender. Furthermore, FoMO (cross-sectionally) mediated relations between both fear of negative and positive evaluation with both problematic and social smartphone use. Theoretical implications are considered with regard to developing problematic smartphone use.
Little previous research has clarified which types of smartphone use are related to problematic smartphone behaviors. We sampled 309 community participants online to understand the role of content consumption vs. social smartphone use in relation to specific problematic smartphone behaviors. Bivariate correlations indicated mostly significant relationships between problematic smartphone behaviors and both process and social usage – but with stronger correlations for process usage. Regression analyses, controlling for age and gender, demonstrated that problematic smartphone-related overuse was significantly associated with process smartphone usage, and to a lesser extent - social usage. Positive anticipation problem behaviors were related to process and social usage. Daily life disturbances from a smartphone were inversely related to process and social usage. Results provide insight into the types of problem smartphone behaviors associated with specific uses and gratifications from a smartphone.
Research has revealed that mobile phone addiction was a risk factor for poor sleep quality, however, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that may mediate or moderate this association. This study examined the mediating role of rumination and moderating role of mindfulness in the association between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality. A sample of 1196 Chinese adolescents was recruited to complete measures of mobile phone addiction, sleep quality, rumination and mindfulness. Results showed that rumination partially mediated the relationship between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality. Besides, both the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality and the mediating effect of rumination were moderated by mindfulness, and both of the two effects were stronger for individuals with lower mindfulness. The present study can advance our understanding of how and when mobile phone addiction leads to poor sleep quality. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed.
Little is known about the mechanisms of smartphone features that are used in sealing relationships between psychopathology and problematic smartphone use. Our purpose was to investigate two specific smartphone usage types – process use and social use – for associations with depression and anxiety; and in accounting for relationships between anxiety/depression and problematic smartphone use. Social smartphone usage involves social feature engagement (e.g., social networking, messaging), while process usage involves non-social feature engagement (e.g., news consumption, entertainment, relaxation). 308 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk internet labor market answered questionnaires about their depression and anxiety symptoms, and problematic smartphone use along with process and social smartphone use dimensions. Statistically adjusting for age and sex, we discovered the association between anxiety symptoms was stronger with process versus social smartphone use. Depression symptom severity was negatively associated with greater social smartphone use. Process smartphone was more strongly associated with problematic smartphone use. Finally, process smartphone use accounted for relationships between anxiety severity and problematic smartphone use.
An extensive literature shows that social relationships influence psychological well-being, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We test predictions about online interactions and well-being made by theories of belongingness, relationship maintenance, relational investment, social support, and social comparison. An opt-in panel study of 1,910 Facebook users linked self-reported measures of well-being to counts of respondents' Facebook activities from server logs. Specific uses of the site were associated with improvements in well-being: Receiving targeted, composed communication from strong ties was associated with improvements in well-being while viewing friends' wide-audience broadcasts and receiving one-click feedback were not. These results suggest that people derive benefits from online communication, as long it comes from people they care about and has been tailored for them.
Objective The present meta-analysis quantitatively reviewed existing literature on social anxiety (SA) and internet use, examining the relationships between SA and three internet use variables: (1) feelings of comfort online; (2) time spent online; and (3) problematic internet use (PIU). In addition, it considered developmental level (age) as a moderator of the social anxiety-internet use relationship. Method We conducted a literature search using PubMed and PsycINFO databases. Our meta-analysis was based on 22 studies and included 13,460 participants. Results and discussion Results indicated that social anxiety (a) is correlated positively with feelings of comfort online, (b) is not correlated with total time spent online, email use and IM, but is correlated positively with time spent on gamming, and (c) is correlated positively with PIU. The study also found developmental level to be a moderator of the correlations between social anxiety and internet use variables. Research and clinical implications are discussed.
This study compared diagonal weighted least squares robust estimation techniques available in 2 popular statistical programs: diagonal weighted least squares (DWLS; LISREL version 8.80) and weighted least squares-mean (WLSM) and weighted least squares-mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV; Mplus version 6.11). A 20-item confirmatory factor analysis was estimated using item-level ordered categorical data. Three different nonnormality conditions were applied to 2-to 7-category data with sample sizes of 200, 400, and 800. Convergence problems were seen with nonnormal data when DWLS was used with few categories. Both DWLS and WLSMV produced accurate parameter estimates; however, bias in standard errors of parameter estimates was extreme for select conditions when nonnormal data were present. The robust estimators generally reported acceptable model-data fit, unless few categories were used with nonnormal data at smaller sample sizes; WLSMV yielded better fit than WLSM for most indices.
