E-mmortal: Death Anxiety is Related to Selfie Behaviors.

Given the widespread phenomenon of selfies, numerous studies are examining the motivations behind taking and sharing selfies. The current paper suggests an additional possible motivation, namely, decreasing death anxiety. People are motivated to decrease their death anxiety by preserving a fake feeling of immortality. One known way to achieve this goal is by using photography. Therefore, we suggest that selfie behaviors are a way to fulfill the need to remain immortal. A hundred undergraduate students (Mage = 22.33) answered self-reported questionnaires regarding selfie motivations, selfie-taking frequency, selfie-sharing frequency, and death anxiety. All of those selfie measurements were indeed positively related to death anxiety. Moreover, many previous studies suggested that narcissism motivates selfie behaviors. In an exploratory approach, we examined whether death anxiety mediates this relationship. Indeed, death anxiety fully mediated the relationships between narcissism and selfie motivations and between narcissism and selfie-taking frequency, suggesting that the well-documented association between selfie behaviors and narcissism might be driven by death anxiety. Those preliminary results indicate that death anxiety is associated with selfie behaviors, opening new avenues for understanding the motivations underlying selfie behaviors.

Children's excessive digital media use, mental health problems and the protective role of parenting during COVID-19.

COVID-19's outbreak in March 2020 and the social distancing measures that followed it changed the lives of children worldwide. Studies assessing the pandemic's implications for children have reported an alarming increase in the use of digital media (DM) and warned of its adverse impacts on children's functioning and development. The current study aimed to assess the relationship between excessive and problematic DM use and emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning among Israeli adolescents during COVID-19 and to identify adolescents at elevated risk of developing problematic DM use. Three hundred forty-seven Israeli parent-child dyads (M age = 11.81, SD = 1.41) separately completed measures assessing children's DM use (time and addiction), functioning (academic, social, emotional, and behavioral), behavioral dysregulation, and the parents' parenting practices. The results showed that DM addiction, but not DM use, was related to children's emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties. Moreover, the results indicated that negative parenting and behavioral dysregulation increased the risk of DM addiction, which in turn increased emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties. The results underscored parents' role in preventing problematic DM use and highlighted the need to treat DM use and problematic DM use as distinct constructs.

Our Fragile Relationships: Relationship Threat and Its Effect on the Allure of Alternative Mates.

Long-term romantic commitments may offer many benefits. It is thus unsurprising that people employ strategies that help protect their relationships against the allure of alternative partners. The present research focused on the circumstances under which these strategies are less effective. Specifically, four studies examined the effect of internal relationship threat on expressions of desire for alternative mates. In Study 1, participants reported perceptions of relationship threat, their desire for their partner, and expressions of attraction to alternative mates. In Studies 2-4, participants underwent a threat manipulation and then encountered attractive strangers. Their reactions during these encounters (expressed interest, provision of help, and overt flirtation in Studies 2, 3, and 4, respectively) were recorded. Results showed that experiencing threat led to increased expressions of desire for alternatives. As indicated in Studies 1 and 2, decreased desire for current partners partially explained this effect, suggesting that desire functions as a gauge of romantic compatibility, ensuring that only valued relationships are maintained.