Cyberpsychology,Behavior,and Social Networking

Acute and chronic psychological distress are prevalent during adolescence and can have negative impacts on adolescents in all life domains. The aim of this systematic review was to appraise the use of virtual reality (VR) interventions to manage symptoms of psychological distress symptoms among adolescents. MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were searched up to June 2020. Available citations were de-duplicated and screened by two authors using title and abstract information. A total of 301 articles were retained for full-text evaluation next to eligibility criteria. Empirical studies of all designs and comparator groups were included if these appraised the impact of an immersive VR intervention on any standardized measure indicative of psychological distress in an adolescent sample. Data were extracted into a standardized coding sheet. Results were tabulated and discussed with a narrative synthesis due to the heterogeneity between studies. A total of seven studies met inclusion criteria. There were four randomized controlled trials and three uncontrolled pilot studies on new VR interventions. Distress-related issues included: state-anxiety, venepuncture, risk taking, public speaking anxiety, social anxiety disorder, sexual victimization, and chemotherapy administration. All studies reported significant changes on outcome measures after VR treatment. Six studies reported small-to-large reductions in symptoms. The average attrition rate was 3.6 percent during the active VR treatment phase. Treatment acceptability was high in the studies that assessed user engagement factors. The VR technology can provide a safe, rapidly efficacious, and acceptable treatment modality for managing psychological distress in several key adolescent populations.

Despite a growing understanding of the triggers for suicidal thoughts and behavior, little is known about the mechanisms that prevent people from killing themselves. The goal of the present study was to use publicly available Reddit data to better understand the reasons that people give for not following through with a potentially lethal suicide attempt. Threads containing key terms (e.g., “kill yourself”) within the subreddit /r/AskReddit were collected and all top posts from these threads were thematically coded. Across the posts collected, 11 different themes were identified; friends and family, curiosity and optimism about the future, spite, purpose, transience, hobbies, animals/pets, fear of survival, fear of pain, death and/or the afterlife, apathy/laziness, and intervention. Some additional themes were captured in an “other” category, and a twelfth theme, use of pharmaceutical drugs, was identified, but not discussed. These findings provide a broad overview about the proximal protective factors that directly stopped people from making a suicide attempt. They also illustrate the potential for Reddit as platform through which to better understand factors that may help to identify and support those in suicidal crisis. Such insight may help to inform intervention and prevention strategies for suicide and those in suicidal crisis.

Research on parasocial interaction (PSI) has a long tradition in noninteractive environments such as watching TV or listening to radio speakers. In the past years, researchers have started to apply PSI on videogame streaming environments, where the audience can interact with the observed media persona and get immediate feedback on their messages and requests. In a 3 × 2 online experiment (N = 251), we manipulated how a streamer addressed participants (individual vs. collective vs. no addressing) and whether he paid attention to and answered messages in the chat (attention vs. no attention to the chat). Findings show that the more individually participants were addressed and whether the streamer reacted to messages in the chat affected experiences of PSI. Furthermore, alongside their overall enjoyment, PSI predicted viewers' commitment to social norms. We discuss these findings regarding their implications for the conceptualization of PSI in light of interactive novel technologies.

This study assessed the mediating roles of problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic smartphone use in the associations between psychological distress and screen time use among primary school children during the school hiatus due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Students (n = 2,026; mean [standard deviation] age = 10.71 years [1.07]; 1,011 [49.9 percent] girls) in Sichuan, China completed a cross-sectional online survey, and this study was approved by the ethics committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (IRB ref: HSEARS20190718001). The Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, and Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale were used to assess problematic gaming, social media use, and smartphone use. The Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 was used to assess distress, and an item rated on a 0–10 scale was included to assess fear of being infected by COVID-19. Fear of being infected by COVID-19 was assessed because this could be a confounding variable in the association between psychological distress and screen time use. Increased time spent on gaming, social media, and smartphones was associated with greater problematic gaming, problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, and psychological distress, but was not associated with fear of COVID-19 infection. Mediation analyses showed that problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic smartphone use were significant mediators in the association between psychological distress and increased time spent on Internet-related activities during the COVID-19 outbreak period. Children who had psychological distress during COVID-19 outbreak might have spent longer time on Internet-related activities due to the school hiatus and problematic use of Internet-related activities. Parents/caregivers are recommended to monitor their children's use of Internet while encouraging children to engage in positive activities to ease the concern of negative psychological responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Internet has brought about a paradigm shift in the lives of many people, especially adolescents. While it has opened great possibilities, it has also led to various risks such as cyberbullying and problematic Internet use (PIU). These two constructs have been extensively researched individually and jointly, but the existence of different profiles of problematic use according to the role a person assumes in the context of cyberbullying has not yet been explored. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to analyze the different PIU profiles of those who have been cybervictims, cyberbullies, and cyberbully victims. An analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted on 25,341 adolescents between 10 and 18 years of age (14.60 ± 1.68). The Cyberbullying Triangulation Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Spanish version of the Generalized and Problematic Internet Use Scale-2 (GPIUS2) were used. The results indicate that cybervictims (6.4 percent), cyberbullies (4.3 percent), and cyberbully victims (2.7 percent) have different profiles of PIU (p < 0.001). Two common profiles emerge from the three roles: one of nonproblematic use and the other of severe problematic use. Participants who presented severe problematic use are the ones who obtained higher scores in cybervictimization and cyberaggression, particularly in the case of cyberbully victims. Furthermore, this profile is 7.6 (IC99 percent:6.11–9.44) times more likely to present PIU than noninvolved adolescents. These results are relevant when planning cyberbullying-focused interventions and programs because of the association between cyberbullying and general PIU.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major global problem. Neuropsychological studies have shown that AUD causes deficits in executive functions (EFs), a set of higher order cognitive skills that govern individual behavior in everyday situations. Many standardized neuropsychological tests are used to evaluate EF. These are reliable and valid but have limitations in predicting real-life performance. To address this, we present a preliminary study to test the virtual cooking task (VCT) as an alternative to standardized neuropsychological tests. The VCT includes four subtasks developed to assess attentional, planning, and cognitive shifting abilities; it was tested in an immersive three-dimensional environment. To evaluate the VCT performance and standardized neuropsychological tests, data were gathered from a sample of healthy subjects (control group [CG]; n = 23) and AUD patients (n = 18). The standardized neuropsychological measures used consisted of questionnaires (Attentional Control Scale, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and Cognitive Flexibility Scale) and specific tests (Dot-probe task, Go/No-go test, Stroop test, the trail making test, and Tower of London test). The results showed significant higher correlations for AUD patients than for the CG for the VCT, questionnaires, and specific tests, mainly related to planning and cognitive shifting abilities. Furthermore, comparative analyses of the VCT performance showed that the AUD patients made more errors and had higher latency times than the CG. The present study provides initial evidence that a more ecologically valid assessment can be a useful tool to detect cognitive impairments in many neuropsychological and mental disorders, affecting daily activities.

Visual field defect caused by glaucoma seriously affects the quality of life of patients, and clinically, this type of visual field defect has been considered to be irreversible. The aim of this study is to use binocular virtual reality training (VR training) to repair visual field defect in glaucoma patients, improve the quality of life of patients, and provide a new therapeutic strategy for the rehabilitation of glaucoma. Seventy glaucoma patients (median 56, range 15–84 years) were recruited and divided into control and training groups. Fifty-four patients' data were analyzed. The training group (n = 30) received binocular VR training for 3 months. The control group (n = 24) maintained the conventional treatment without any other intervention. Their visual field index (VFI) and mean defect (MD), and retinal nerve fiber layer average thickness (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer average thickness (GCL) average thickness before training and during followup were analyzed. In the training group, the VFI value (Z = 3.277; p = 0.001) and MD value (Z = 3.913; p < 0.0001) were significantly improved after 1 month of training. After 3 months of training, the VFI value (Z = 3.761; p < 0.0001) and MD value (Z = 3.133; p = 0.002) were significantly improved. There was no significant difference with the changes of average thickness of RNFL (p = 0.350) and GCL average (p = 0.383) after 3 months of training; whereas in the control group, except for a further reduction in GCL average thickness (Z = 3.158; p = 0.002) compared with the baseline data, the other followup data were not statistically significant compared with the baseline data. Our data suggested that binocular VR training can significantly improve the visual field defect of glaucoma patients but warrants further study with large sample size.

Clinical Trail registration number: ChiCTR1900027909.

Prior research suggests that rejection sensitive individuals may find it easier to express their true selves in an online environment. The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which rejection sensitivity (RS) and true self influence self-disclosure within the context of online dating. We collected data from a total of 1,295 individuals who completed an online survey. For those who engaged in online dating, RS was not directly related to self-disclosure in online dating profiles or in communicating with individuals met through online dating sites/apps, but true self was. In addition, there was an indirect relationship between RS and self-disclosure in the context of online dating through true self. These findings suggest that rejection sensitive individuals who feel more comfortable revealing aspects of their “true” selves online may be more likely to engage in self-disclosure within the context of online dating, which could potentially offer some clue as to why rejection sensitive individuals may be somewhat more likely to engage in online dating than less rejection sensitive individuals. That is, rejection sensitive individuals are perhaps more likely to engage in online dating because it may facilitate representation of their “true” selves and may thus increase dating success.