Cyberpsychology,Behavior,and Social Networking

In this study, we analyzed >200,000 posts collected from Facebook public pages that were published in December 2020 during the rollout of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the American public. We ran both topic modeling and sentiment analysis of the posts and found that first Facebook posts talked about not only treatment effectiveness such as trial results and testing approaches but also other issues that surround vaccines such as approval and distribution. Second, although the general sentiment during this period was positive and anticipation was the highest emotion, Facebook posts expressed a salient amount of fear and sadness, especially when discussing emergency approval and trial results. Finally, we found that both topics and sentiments have a significant influence on user likes. Using the topic of vaccine distribution as a baseline, posts that discuss related aspects of vaccines (e.g., effectiveness, shipment, and testing), call for actions (e.g., use of masks) and indicate care to vulnerable groups (e.g., health care workers and seniors) received more likes. Posts with bad news (e.g., new cases and deaths) and doubts over the usefulness of vaccines received fewer likes. Regardless of their valences, approach emotions lead to more likes whereas withdrawal emotions lead to fewer likes. Our study suggests that to facilitate actions, using certain topics and approach emotions in the posts could be helpful.

This study aims to unveil how COVID-19 affected the experience of stress by focusing on the stressors. Using computational analysis based on a newly developed stressor identification model, we compared the experience of stress expressed by Korean Twitter users before and during the pandemic in terms of (1) the stressors as the source of stress and (2) emotion as the manifestation of stress. Both tweet-level (N = 202,556) and user-level (N = 24,803) analyses revealed that social factors are prevalent sources of stress both before and during the pandemic. Moreover, social stressors increased the most during the pandemic. While stress from social stressors was manifested mainly as sadness before the pandemic, anger became the predominant emotional manifestation during the pandemic. Public health policies and educators should consider social stressors as the predominant source of stress during the pandemic and seek ways to prepare the public better for such threats.

Cyberbullying has become a critical issue in many parts of the world. Children affected by bullying in cyberspace may also experience various other problems in their daily lives, such as emotional and behavioral issues. Despite the well-documented positive correlation between digital technology use and cyberbullying experiences in adolescents, a paucity of research has explored the association between digital technology use and cyberbullying, and the extent to which digital literacy (DL) and parental mediation moderate these relationships among primary school-aged children. This study addressed these research gaps. A total of 736 children (third grade, female = 52 percent) in Hong Kong, selected through stratified random sampling, reported on their digital technology use, parental mediation of technology use (i.e., active mediation and restriction), and cyberbullying experiences. A performance-based assessment measured children's DL. Results showed a positive association between children's digital technology use (both for leisure activities and for schoolwork) and cyberbullying experiences (both as perpetrator and victim). These positive associations were more pronounced among children with low levels of DL (only victims) as well as among children with highly restrictive parents (both perpetrators and victims). Implications for digital citizenship education and parental intervention are discussed.

There is a growing need for high-quality evidence to support the efficacy of online counseling and peer support via social networking sites (SNSs) as an intervention to reduce mental health symptoms in young people. This article presents Phase 2 of Kids Helpline (KHL) Circles, which used mixed methods to assess the acceptability, safety, user experience, and mental health benefits of a purpose-built, counselor-facilitated SNS. Young people aged 13–25 years (n = 552) were recruited to participate in one of six 8-week “Circles.” Of those, 154 participants completed study surveys at three timepoints (baseline, midpoint, endpoint). Significant reductions in depression, anxiety, stress, and general distress symptoms were reported at the midpoint of the intervention, with further significant reductions in depression and stress symptoms by the endpoint. More than half said that their mental health improved as a direct result of KHL Circles, and most felt less mental health stigma and would be more willing to seek help for mental health issues in the future. These results contribute to increasing the evidence base for SNS interventions to reduce mental health symptoms. Adjustments are necessary for the ongoing evolution of this service to ensure it is user-centered and scientifically rigorous.

The parental expectation in adolescents' education is an essential factor of adolescents' social and emotional development. However, little is known about how it is related to adolescents' mobile phone addiction, especially for adolescents from low-income families. To address this issue, this study investigated the relationship between parental expectation and mobile phone addiction, and its underlying mechanisms in adolescents from low-income families. We hypothesized that parental expectation would negatively predict mobile phone addiction, and self-esteem and social anxiety would play multiple mediation roles in this relationship. Results from a sample of 1,953 Chinese adolescents in low-income families revealed that (a) parental expectation was negatively associated with adolescents' mobile phone addiction, (b) both social anxiety and self-esteem played partial and parallel mediating roles between parental expectation and mobile phone addiction, and (c) social anxiety and self-esteem mediated the association between parental expectation and mobile phone addiction sequentially. This study would advance our understanding of how proper parenting styles and social networks helped to prevent children's mobile phone addiction. The limitations and implications of this study are discussed.

Based on the computers are social actors theory and social presence theory, the current study investigates the psychological mechanism by which the use of friendly language by a personalized product recommendation chatbot influences product attitudes. Results indicated that the effect of the friendly chatbot on more positive product attitudes was sequentially mediated by social presence and user satisfaction. Previous experience with product recommendation chatbots was found to moderate the serial mediation effects. Furthermore, the current study found that a friendly chatbot led to higher rates of contact information disclosure by consumers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The study (N = 879) investigated underlying mechanisms of the effects of brand feedback (a business' written response) to negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) messages (e.g., online product reviews) using the theoretical framework of the attribution theory. Findings suggest that brand feedback can positively (via an indirect route) as well as negatively (via a direct route) affect prospective consumers' purchase intentions. Brand feedback positively affects purchase intentions in part through a reduction in consumers' perceptions of the brand's volitional control over the problem (controllability) and long-lasting nature (stability) of the cause of the problem described in a negative eWOM. Brand trust also partially mediates these indirect positive effects.

With the drastic expansion of the games industry, psychological research is concerned with the question as to why certain genres might be more addictive than others. Besides specific games characteristics and motivational profiles of gamers, skills that are relevant to play certain games and genres might provide more insights for answering this question. An exploratory online survey was designed, asking for played genres, subjective relevance of required skills to play the game, gaming motives, and symptom severity. The analyses aimed at investigating which genres are associated with higher and lower symptoms of their players and the relationship between the relevance of skills required for certain genres and the symptom severity of players. In total, 727 data sets were collected. Descriptive results indicated that the most pronounced difference between genres associated with low and high symptom severity appeared among the indicated relevance of communicating with others, the social motive for gaming, and among the relevance of required executive function skills such as attentional vigilance. The communication skill is discussed as a vulnerability factor for maintaining problematic gaming behaviors despite the occurrence of negative consequences, whereas certain executive functions could be constitutional factors of the experience of a flow state. The association between flow and addictive gaming tendencies is a topic yet to be investigated in future research.