Cyberpsychology,Behavior,and Social Networking

As Internet use increases, there is a growing risk of online harms, including cyber stalking and cyber harassment. However, there has been limited research investigating the impact of such online harms upon adults' well-being. This article engages in a systematic literature review concerning the mental health impact of online stalking and harassment for adult victims to further understand their experiences and the effects these have on their lives. Our research utilized the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis technique to review articles published in eight online databases. A total of 1,204 articles were extracted and, ultimately, 43 articles analyzed. Forty-two of the reviewed articles reported that victims of cyber stalking and/or harassment experienced a multitude of harmful and detrimental consequences for their mental health, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and panic attacks. Victims recounted the lack of support they received from the criminal justice system and their subsequent distrust of technology postabuse. Only one study found no relationship between cyber abuse victimization and the well-being dimensions they examined. Our research highlights the need to devise practical solutions to tackle and minimize this victimization. Furthermore, it underlines the necessity for adult education concerning safer technology use, as well as for researchers to be transparent regarding the platforms that victims have been abused on, so we can better infer where and how exactly individuals need support to interact safely online.

To diminish the risk of spreading COVID-19 as society exits the lockdowns, several apps have been developed for contact tracing. These apps register which users have been in proximity of each other. If a user is diagnosed with COVID-19, app users who have been recently in proximity to this person are notified. The effectiveness of these apps highly depends on public support. Therefore, this study investigated the factors that influence app use intention, based on an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. A survey was administered in Belgium (Flanders) to 1,500 participants aged 18 to 64 years old. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the model's constructs. Our results indicated that 48.70 percent of the respondents wanted to use the app. The model explained 39 percent of the variance in app use intention. The most important predictor was performance expectancy, followed by facilitating conditions and social influence. Effort expectancy was not related to intention. Moreover, individuals' innovativeness was positively related with app use intention, whereas app-related privacy concerns negatively influenced intention. Based on the results, suggestions are made for policy makers and developers.

Social endorsement cues (SEC) offer information about how online users have engaged and evaluated online content. Some view that SEC thus can serve as useful heuristics when users evaluate the credibility of news content on social media. At the same time, SEC can be manipulated by a variety of commercial and political actors on social media. This study examines whether SEC influence individuals' credibility judgments of political news on social media, and how the salience of concerns that SEC can be manipulated by others can undermine the perceived credibility. Using an experiment, we found that SEC had a negative influence on news credibility, regardless of whether or not SEC manipulability concerns were primed. An independent effect of SEC manipulability concerns was also found, such that priming thoughts about the manipulability of SEC led participants to rate the news post as less credible, regardless of whether that post included SEC. These results suggest a spillover effect whereby concerns over the manipulation of SEC can create doubt about the authenticity of other cues from the news (e.g., source and message), and lead to perceptions that news shared on social media can be manipulated more generally.

This study assessed the discrepancies between reports from parents and children concerning children's exposure to violence/pornography on mobile devices and the impact on the psychosocial adjustment of children. Data were obtained from a sample of 2,230 parent–child dyads recruited from 16 elementary schools (1,140 dyads) in Taiwan and 9 schools (1,090 dyads) in China. A self-administered questionnaire was used. The results showed that about 30 percent of children reported being exposed to violence on mobile devices. Approximately 70 percent of their parents were unaware of their child's exposure to violence on mobile devices. About 16 percent of children reported exposure to pornography on mobile devices, and 80 percent of their parents were unaware of this exposure. Multinomial logistic regression results showed that after controlling for parent and child sociodemographic variables, factors related to parental unawareness of child exposure to violence on mobile devices included a child's ownership of mobile devices, smartphone/tablet use time, a lower level of parental understanding, and a residence in China or in a rural area, whereas the parent–child relationship and a child's smartphone/tablet use time were associated with parents who were unaware of their child's exposure to pornography. Multiple regression results showed that children who were living with household poverty, had a poor parent–child relationship, spent much time using a smartphone/tablet, and with parents who were unaware of their exposure to violence/pornography on mobile devices were more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.

Little has been known about the mechanisms underlying parental smartphone addiction (PSA) and adolescent smartphone addiction (ASA). This study examined whether PSA predicts ASA and investigated the mediating roles of parental rejection (PR) and adolescent depression (ADP) among a sample of 4,415 parent–child dyads. Analysis of a serial multiple-mediator model indicated that PSA positively predicted ASA (B = 0.13, SE = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.09–0.16). In addition, PR and ADP sequentially mediated the link between PSA and ASA (B = 0.01, 95% boot CI = 0.01–0.02). Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is of growing importance as a research field and in clinical settings, as documented by the inclusion of the diagnosis in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the preliminary International Classification of Diseases. Studies using screening tools to assess IGD and comparison with expert evaluations in clinical relevant populations are rare. Furthermore, concerned parents are often the first source of information in clinical practice, and their assessment of addictive behavior often differs widely from their child's self-evaluation. In two studies (N = 95) we investigated the usefulness of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) with adolescents at risk of IGD, either in parental company (Study 1) or alone (Study 2). Self-reported assessments on the scales were compared with parental ratings (only Study 1) and an expert face-to-face evaluation according to DSM-5 (both studies). We found higher correlations between expert evaluations of IGD criteria and screening scores for self-reported compared with parental ratings. Quality of categorization into persons with and without IGD confirmed that parental assessments were not conclusive in this setting. In this context, different cutoff values, sensitivity, and specificity for the screening instruments are discussed. We conclude that IAT and CIUS provide tentative usefulness for self-evaluation of adolescents at risk of IGD, and suggestions for using different cutoff scores for varying purposes are provided. In our study, parental assessments on the screening tools lead to an overestimation of IGD and are, therefore, not recommended as a sole source of information in clinical settings.

The present cross-sectional research examined the moderating role of resilience in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and mental health outcomes, measured based on depression symptoms and life satisfaction. The sample consisted of 2,108 adolescents aged 12–17 who completed measures of cyberbullying victimization, resilience, depression, and life satisfaction. Structural equation models showed an appropriate fit of the moderation model of resilience in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and mental health outcomes [χ² (149) = 1,270.368; root-mean-squared error of approximation = 0.066; comparative fit index = 0.923; Tucker–Lewis index = 0.907]. Regression analyses revealed significant interaction effects, indicating that among adolescents with high levels of resilience, cyberbullying victimization was associated with fewer symptoms of depression and a smaller reduction in life satisfaction. This study highlights the importance of working on resilience in adolescents as a mechanism to deal with cyberbullying victimization.

As social media use has increased in prevalence, so have concerns that social media may be detrimental to mental health and wellbeing. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate whether limiting social media use leads to increases in wellbeing. A secondary aim was to assess whether sleep quality contributed to the hypothesized relationship between social media use and wellbeing. One hundred and thirty-two individuals participated in the current study, with half the participants limiting their use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat for 1 week. Social media use was monitored by having participants email screen shots of their battery usage, which included information on the level of usage for Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Relative to a control group that did not limit social media use, taking a break from social media led to a small improvement in wellbeing. This improvement, at least in part, appears to be due to changes in sleep quality.

This study's aim was to uncover psychological and social motives for using untact services and to explore the relationships between identified motivations and attitudinal and continuous behavioral intention variables. We conducted a survey with 328 untact service users, and used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to find underlying motivations. The findings suggest that users of untact services have four primary motives. Individuals use untact services to protect their personal information (privacy), to increase their control over business transactions (control), to enjoy the process itself (fun), and to avoid uncomfortable interactions with employees (interaction avoidance). In addition, identified motivations and attitudes toward as well as continuing intention to use the services were all positively related. Among the motivations, control showed the strongest relationship with both attitude and continuance intention.