Problematic Internet Use among Adults: A Cross-Cultural Study in 15 Countries.

BACKGROUND: The present study compared adult usage patterns of online activities, the frequency rate of problematic internet use (PIU), and risk factors (including the psychopathology associated with PIU, i.e., distress and impulsivity) among adults in 15 countries from Europe, America, and Asia. METHODS: A total of 5130 adults from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, UK, Norway, Peru, Canada, US, and Indonesia completed an online survey assessing PIU and a number of psychological variables (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress, and impulsivity). The sample included more females, with a mean age of 24.71 years (SD = 8.70). RESULTS: PIU was slightly lower in European countries (rates ranged from 1.1% in Finland to 10.1% in the UK, compared to 2.9% in Canada and 10.4% in the US). There were differences in specific PIU rates (e.g., problematic gaming ranged from 0.4% in Poland to 4.7% in Indonesia). Regression analyses showed that PIU was predicted by problematic social networking and gaming, lack of perseverance, positive urgency, and depression. CONCLUSIONS: The differences in PIU between countries were significant for those between continental regions (Europe versus non-European countries). One of the most interesting findings is that the specific PIU risks were generally low compared to contemporary literature. However, higher levels of PIU were present in countries outside of Europe, although intra-European differences existed.

PTSD as a Moderator of the Relationship Between the Distribution of Personal Resources and Spiritual Change Among Participants of Hostilities in Ukraine.

The theory of conservation of resources (COR) can be used to search for mechanisms that explain spiritual changes caused by trauma. The present study aimed to verify whether PTSD could be a potential moderator between the distribution of personal resources and spiritual changes. The study included a total of 324 adults (75 women and 243 men) aged 18-74. The mean age was 34.3 (SD = 9.9). The Polish adaptation of Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources-Evaluation (COR-E), the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Checklist-Civilian Version and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory were employed in the research. This study analyzed the spiritual change, which is one of the five domains of posttraumatic growth. The outcomes indicated the significant role of PTSD as a moderator of the relationships between 1) personal resources gain and spiritual change and 2) personal resources loss and spiritual change. PTSD is not a moderator in the relationship between assigning value to personal resources and spiritual change.

Quality of life and prosocial or antisocial coping with resource deprivation: A cross-sectional study of people at risk of social exclusion.

(1) BACKGROUND: This paper presents a study based on Stevan Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory and deals specifically with resources and coping as predictors of the quality of life of persons threatened by social exclusion. They have no access to public psychosocial resources, the acquisition and accumulation of which are closely linked to the perceived quality of life. (2) METHOD: A cross-sectional self-reported questionnaire study. A sample of 1,074 individuals from various groups at risk of exclusion was surveyed using the Conservation of Resources-Evaluation Questionnaire, the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale, and the WHO Quality of Life Questionnaire. The research was done among people supported by Polish non-governmental organizations operating nationwide. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediational hypotheses in the analysis. (3) RESULTS: The significant variables that determined the relationship between resource gains and losses and the quality of life included active-passive and prosocial-antisocial coping strategies. The results were generally robust, but the level of education moderated the relationship between active antisocial coping and quality of life. (4) CONCLUSIONS: The obtained dependencies are consistent with Hobfoll's approach, confirming its usefulness. Prosocial coping mediates the effect of resource gain on the increase in quality of life and the effect of resource loss on the decline in quality of life, strengthening the former and weakening the latter.

Determinants of Quality of Life in the COVID-19 Pandemic Situation among Persons Using Psychological Help at Various Stages of the Pandemic.

This article presents the results of three surveys conducted during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 and in late June/early July 2020, when pandemic restrictions were in force. The surveys covered patients who had used psychological assistance before the pandemic. two were cross-sectional and one was longitudinal. The first survey involved 270 people (age: M = 29.59, SD = 10.74, women 79.3%), and the second one covered 117 subjects (age: M = 29.40, SD = 11.49, women 85.5%). The third, longitudinal, survey covered 83 subjects (age: M = 26.61, SD = 7.17, women 89.2%). In our research we used the Conservation of Resources Evaluation questionnaire, the abbreviated version of the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced, the WHO Quality of Life Scale, and a questionnaire for collecting sociodemographic information. Our analysis of the quality-of-life correlates in the two cross-sectional studies leads to an observation that for people using psychological help, the constant determinants of quality of life during a pandemic are high gain in resources and little loss of resources. In the first phase of the pandemic, active strategies were not linked to the sense of quality of life. This sense, however, was diminished by a number of negative strategies, such as denial, venting, substance use, restraint, and self-blame. After 3 months of the ongoing pandemic, perceived quality of life was positively correlated with strategies related to seeking instrumental support and active coping. this most likely points to a process of adapting to a difficult situation. The results of our longitudinal surveys demonstrate increasing escapism. Our attempt at explaining which factors determined the quality of life after 3 months of the ongoing pandemic showed that the crucial factors are: a sense of quality of life before the occurrence of the pandemic, changes in the distribution of resilience-oriented resources, changed frequency of using passive strategies, and active ways of coping-but only after 3 months into the pandemic. The results thus obtained can be used both in prevention and in work with persons affected by the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The quality of life, resources, and coping during the first weeks of the COVID­19 pandemic in people seeking psychological counselling before the pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to understand the relationship between resource gains and losses, coping, and the quality of life during the growth phase of the COVID­19 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Internet-based survey covered 353 individuals who had participated in a psychological support project operated by one of the non-governmental organizations in Lublin, Poland, in the 12 months prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. The questionnaire used in the study contained questions to collect sociodemographic data and psychometric scales to measure resource gains and losses (the Conservation of Resources - Evaluation questionnaire), the quality of life (the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF), and strategies of coping with the pandemic situation (a modified Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced questionnaire). RESULTS: A higher global quality of life occurred with higher gains and minor losses, as well as with coping through planning, positive reframing, emotional support seeking, a reduced substance use tendency, low self-blame, avoidance, and disengagement. Moreover, helplessness-based coping strategies were found to mediate both the relationships between resource gains and the quality of life, and between resource losses and the quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Factors that may reduce people's quality of life during the COVID­19 pandemic are an increase in losses and limited gains, experienced over the 6 months preceding the pandemic, as well as not using active, meaning-oriented, and support-seeking coping strategies, but using avoidance behaviors instead. Coping strategies specific to people experiencing helplessness are a mediating mechanism between losses and limited gains of resources, and the quality of life. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2021;34(2):275-87.

Prevalence and selected determinants of the risk of problem gambling among Polish secondary school students.

OBJECTIVE: The study had two aims. The first was to determine the prevalence of various types of gambling behaviour and the severity of gambling among secondary school students in one of the poorest provinces in Poland. The second was to identify correlations between selected socio-demographic variables and the severity of gambling problems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was carried out on a group of teenagers from secondary schools in the Lublin Province of eastern Poland. The survey covered 923 respondents aged 17 - 21 (M=18.06; SD=0.367). The study used a list of gambling activities, the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA), and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The effects of independent variables on the severity of gambling behaviour were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test (for binary variables, such as gender or age group) and Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA for ternary variables (e.g., place of residence, type of school). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that in the studied population 7.2% were pathological gamblers and 41.8% had not gambled during the 12 months prior to the study. These findings are consistent with the literature. There seems to be a clear trend in which pathological gambling is found most frequently among technical secondary school students, and least frequently among those from secondary schools of general education. In addition, persons who had lived (until the age of 10) in rural areas scored the lowest in SOGS-RA, while those from cities below 50,000 residents, scored the highest. In families with a gambling member, pathological gambling was found 1.7 times more frequently.

The Prevalence of E-Gambling and of Problem E-Gambling in Poland.

This study estimated the levels of involvement in e-gambling and problem e-gambling in Poland and identified selected sociodemographic variables associated with e-gambling activities. The study was conducted using a representative sample of the adult inhabitants of Poland (n = 2000). The survey contained questions measuring three aspects of gambling (involvement in e-gambling, types of e-gambling activity, and problematic e-gambling). Results suggested that 4.1% of respondents were involved in e-gambling and 26.8% of them could be classified as problem gamblers. The most popular e-gambling games were lotteries and sports betting. Gender, age, size of city of residence, level of education, and income were identified as significant predictors of involvement in e-gambling. The results indicated that men, younger people, and people who earnt less were more often involved in e-gambling. Having children, playing online scratch cards, and online sport betting-but not online lotteries-turned out to be typical for problem online gamblers. The prevalence of problem gambling among Polish e-gamblers suggests that extended research in this area is needed.

Cross-Cultural Validation of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale in Four Forms and Eight Languages.

The 14-item Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) is one of the most frequently internationally adapted psychometric instruments developed to assess generalized problematic Internet use. Multiple adaptations of this instrument have led to versions in different languages (e.g., Arabic and French), and different numbers of items (e.g., from 5 to 16 items instead of the original 14). However, to date, the CIUS has never been simultaneously compared and validated in several languages and different versions. Consequently, the present study tested the psychometric properties of four CIUS versions (i.e., CIUS-14, CIUS-9, CIUS-7, and CIUS-5) across eight languages (i.e., German, French, English, Finnish, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Hungarian) to (a) examine their psychometric properties, and (b) test their measurement invariance. These analyses also identified the optimal versions of the CIUS. The data were collected via online surveys administered to 4,226 voluntary participants from 15 countries, aged at least 18 years, and recruited from academic environments. All brief versions of the CIUS in all eight languages were validated. Dimensional, configural, and metric invariance were established across all languages for the CIUS-5, CIUS-7, and CIUS-9, but the CIUS-5 and CIUS-7 were slightly more suitable because their model fitted the ordinal estimate better, while for cross-comparisons, the CIUS-9 was slightly better. The brief versions of the CIUS are therefore reliable and structurally stable instruments that can be used for cross-cultural research across adult populations.

Measurement Invariance of the Short Version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ-SV) across Eight Languages.

The prevalence of mobile phone use across the world has increased greatly over the past two decades. Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU) has been studied in relation to public health and comprises various behaviours, including dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use. These types of problematic mobile phone behaviours are typically assessed with the short version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ⁻SV). However, to date, no study has ever examined the degree to which the PMPU scale assesses the same construct across different languages. The aims of the present study were to (i) determine an optimal factor structure for the PMPUQ⁻SV among university populations using eight versions of the scale (i.e., French, German, Hungarian, English, Finnish, Italian, Polish, and Spanish); and (ii) simultaneously examine the measurement invariance (MI) of the PMPUQ⁻SV across all languages. The whole study sample comprised 3038 participants. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were extracted from the demographic and PMPUQ-SV items. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses alongside MI analyses were conducted. Results showed a similar pattern of PMPU across the translated scales. A three-factor model of the PMPUQ-SV fitted the data well and presented with good psychometric properties. Six languages were validated independently, and five were compared via measurement invariance for future cross-cultural comparisons. The present paper contributes to the assessment of problematic mobile phone use because it is the first study to provide a cross-cultural psychometric analysis of the PMPUQ-SV.

Personality Traits, Strategies for Coping with Stress and the Level of Internet Addiction-A Study of Polish Secondary-School Students.

Among the many contributing factors in addictions there are also those describing the individual characteristics and ways of dealing with various life challenges. Despite numerous studies in this area, there is still no unambiguous data on the nature and specificity of this relationship in different age groups. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between personality dimensions and strategies of coping with stress and the level of Internet addiction. The study was funded by the Ministry of Health under grant no. 93/HM/2015. The study was carried out in a group of 383 persons aged 15 to 19 (M = 16.6, SD = 0.77) attending secondary schools. The following research tools were used: Ten Item Personality Measure, Brief Cope and Internet Addiction Test. Both specific personality traits and styles of coping with stress are related to the addiction to the analysed medium. The personality traits most strongly associated with the risky Internet use were conscientiousness and emotional stability. An association was demonstrated between Internet addiction and the use of coping strategies, such as disengagement, substance use and self-blame. The results obtained demonstrate a major role of personality-related factors in the development of Internet addiction. The attitude to difficulties seems to be the key issue. The findings presented also make it possible to delineate the areas for improvement (e.g., through psychoeducational interventions) to protect young people from the risk of developing the addiction.

Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey.

Background and aims Despite many positive benefits, mobile phone use can be associated with harmful and detrimental behaviors. The aim of this study was twofold: to examine (a) cross-cultural patterns of perceived dependence on mobile phones in ten European countries, first, grouped in four different regions (North: Finland and UK; South: Spain and Italy; East: Hungary and Poland; West: France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland), and second by country, and (b) how socio-demographics, geographic differences, mobile phone usage patterns, and associated activities predicted this perceived dependence. Methods A sample of 2,775 young adults (aged 18-29 years) were recruited in different European Universities who participated in an online survey. Measures included socio-demographic variables, patterns of mobile phone use, and the dependence subscale of a short version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ; Billieux, Van der Linden, & Rochat, 2008). Results The young adults from the Northern and Southern regions reported the heaviest use of mobile phones, whereas perceived dependence was less prevalent in the Eastern region. However, the proportion of highly dependent mobile phone users was more elevated in Belgium, UK, and France. Regression analysis identified several risk factors for increased scores on the PMPUQ dependence subscale, namely using mobile phones daily, being female, engaging in social networking, playing video games, shopping and viewing TV shows through the Internet, chatting and messaging, and using mobile phones for downloading-related activities. Discussion and conclusions Self-reported dependence on mobile phone use is influenced by frequency and specific application usage.