Socio-demographic and mental health correlates of internet addiction amongst Hong Kong university students under COVID-19.

Introduction: Regarding the problem of Internet addiction (IA) amongst university students under the pandemic, there are several research gaps. Firstly, few studies have examined IA of university students in Hong Kong, which is a Chinese society heavily influenced by Western values. In addition, findings on the socio-demographic correlates and psychological well-being predictors of IA in university students are unclear. Finally, researchers have not systematically examined the interaction effects of socio-demographic factors (particularly gender and personal infection of COVID-19) and psychological morbidity on IA. This pioneer study aimed to investigate the predictive role of socio-demographic factors and psychological morbidity in IA, and the moderating effects of gender and personal infection of COVID-19 on the relationship between psychological morbidity and IA. Methods: We conducted an online survey (N = 1,020 university students) during the ending phase of Wave 5 of the pandemic in Hong Kong (late 2022 to early 2023). Socio-demographic correlates included age, gender, living status, personal and family financial situation, student status, personal and family infection of COVID-19. Participants responded to validated measures of psychological morbidity, including depression, suicidal behavior, and hopelessness. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analyses were used to examine the predictive role of socio-demographic variables and psychological morbidity in IA and the interactive effect of gender and personal infection of COVID-19 with psychological morbidity on IA. Results: Personal financial difficulty was a significant socio-demographic predictor of IA. Depression, suicidal behavior, and hopelessness positively predicted IA. We also found a significant interaction effect of gender and psychological morbidity on IA. While the predictive relationship between depression and IA was stronger in males than in females, hopelessness was more strongly related to IA in females than in males. Finally, there was a significant interaction effect of personal infection of COVID-19 and suicidal behavior on IA. Conclusion: Personal financial difficulty was a socio-economic correlate of IA. Psychological morbidity also predicted IA. Gender and personal infection of COVID-19 moderated the linkage between psychological morbidity and IA. The findings of the study enhance our understanding of individual differences in IA in university students during the pandemic, particularly concerning different ecological risk factors.

Risk Factors and Protective Factors of Internet Addiction in University Students during the Pandemic: Implications for Prevention and Treatment.

While the prevalence rates of Internet addiction (IA) amongst young people during the pandemic are disturbing, few studies have investigated the risk and protective factors of IA in Hong Kong university students under COVID-19. In this study, we examined the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and IA and the role of psychological morbidity and positive psychological attributes in the relationship. In summer 2022, 978 university students completed a survey assessing pandemic-related stress, psychological morbidity, and positive psychological attributes. While psychological morbidity was indexed by depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal behavior, positive psychological attributes included life satisfaction, flourishing, adversity beliefs, emotional competence, resilience, and family functioning measures. Results showed that stress and psychological morbidity positively predicted IA, and psychological morbidity mediated the association between stress and IA. Positive psychological attributes negatively predicted stress and IA, and mediated the connection between stress and IA. Positive psychological attributes moderated the mediating effect of psychological morbidity on the relationship between stress and IA. In addition to theoretical contributions, this study contributes to IA prevention and treatment: reducing psychological morbidity and promoting positive psychological attributes are promising strategies to address IA issues in young people.

Stress and depressive symptoms in university students in Hong Kong under the pandemic: Moderating effect of positive psychological attributes.

Introduction: There are very few studies examining the psychological well-being of university students in Hong Kong under the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides COVID-19-related stress, the "social event" in 2019-2020 has caused significant stress in young people. As such, we attempted to answer several research questions in this paper. First, what are the relationships between stresses (COVID-19 and "social event" related stresses) and psychological well-being indexed by depressive symptoms? Based on the stress and coping perspective, we predicted that there would be positive relationships between both types of stress and depression. Second, what are the relationships between different positive psychological factors (including life satisfaction, resilience and emotional management, flourishing, and beliefs about adversity) and depression? Based on different theoretical models of positive psychology, we hypothesized that negative relationships would exist between positive psychological factors and depressive symptoms. Third, do positive psychological attributes moderate the associations between stresses (COVID-19 and "social event" related stresses) and depressive symptoms? Based on the positive psychology literature, we hypothesized that positive psychological attributes would buffer the negative impact of stresses on depression. Methods: We recruited university students roughly one year after the first wave of the pandemic (N = 1,648) in early 2021. We used 25 items to measure COVID-19-related stress and "social event" related stress. For psychological well-being indexed by depressive symptoms, we used the "Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R)". For positive psychological attributes, we employed established measures of life satisfaction, resilience and emotional management, flourishing, and beliefs about adversity. Results: Regarding the relationship between stress and depression, we found positive relationships between both types of stress and depressive symptoms. As predicted, negative relationships existed between all positive psychological attributes and depressive symptoms. Besides, the positive psychological attributes significantly moderated the effects of stresses on depression, suggesting that these factors can reduce the negative impacts of stresses on depression. The present findings provide support for those models, highlighting the importance of positive psychological attributes as protective factors for university students' depression. Discussion: The findings of this study underscore the important role of positive psychological attributes in the stress-depression relationship in university students under the pandemic. The findings also generalize the positive youth development theory in the Chinese context. In terms of practice, university administrators and service providers should consider cultivating positive psychological attributes in university students with the purpose of promoting their psychological well-being.

Associations between two conceptualizations of materialism and subjective wellbeing in China: A meta-analysis of studies from 1998 to 2022.

This meta-analysis examines the relationship between materialism (materialistic values and extrinsic aspirations) and subjective wellbeing in the Chinese population. Fifty-six relevant studies covering the period from 1998 to 2022 were included in the meta-analysis. Fifty-eight independent effect sizes from a total of 52,368 participants were obtained to calculate the mean effect sizes. Materialistic values correlated with significantly lower subjective wellbeing (r = -0.205), while the mean effect size for extrinsic aspirations was found to be not significant (r = -0.048). The effect sizes varied across different types of wellbeing outcomes (materialistic values: rs = -0.095 to -0.202; extrinsic aspirations: rs = 0.066 to -0.125). The associations were also moderated by certain demographic factors (age and gender), methodological factors (study design and scoring method), publication features (type of publication and publication year), and economic indicators (economic growth and wealth inequality). We discuss our limitations and the implications for future research.

Medical English anxiety patterns among medical students in Sichuan, China.

This study adapts a Medical English Language Anxiety Scale (MELAS) based on Horwitz's Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and examines students' anxiety in medical English vocabulary, listening and speaking, communication, literature reading, and academic paper writing. The biographical factors related to medical English language anxiety (MELA) were also tested. The questionnaire sets including five dimensions were distributed to the students from a medical university in Sichuan, China, and were statistically analyzed by using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 21.0. By employing the adapted MELAS, it was found that 85.2% of the medical students surveyed suffered moderate and higher anxiety. Among all dimensions, students with listening and speaking anxiety recorded the highest (89.3%), followed by literature reading anxiety (86.6%), English academic writing anxiety (85.9%), communication anxiety (81.9%), and vocabulary learning anxiety (81.2%). We also found that the anxiety of rural medical students in each dimension was higher than that of urban medical students. This study suggests that English teachers should be fully aware of their students' language anxiety situation, design interesting class activities, and create a relaxed English learning atmosphere in classroom teaching to make students less nervous when learning medical English in class.

Relationship Between Paternalistic Leadership and Employee Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Among Chinese Samples.

The meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between three dimensions of paternalistic leadership and employee innovation in Chinese enterprises. There exists over a decade of empirical research on the influence of paternalistic leadership on employee innovation in China, but the findings from the various studies are not consistent. Sixty-nine studies from 2009 to 2021 were included in the meta-analysis, and 154 effect sizes were examined. The study found that two dimensions of paternalistic leadership (benevolent leadership r = 0.396 and moral leadership r = 0.329) were positively associated with employee innovation. In contrast, the dimension of authoritarian leadership was negatively associated with innovation (r = -0.151). Moderator analyses found that gender, the education level of employees, time, and the type of evaluation served as meaningful moderators. The moderating effects of outcome measure, the type of data collection method, and the type of publication were not significant. We discuss our limitations, implications for future studies, and practical implications for organizational management.

Can MOOC Instructor Be Portrayed by Semantic Features? Using Discourse and Clustering Analysis to Identify Lecture-Style of Instructors in MOOCs.

Nowadays, most courses in massive open online course (MOOC) platforms are xMOOCs, which are based on the traditional instruction-driven principle. Course lecture is still the key component of the course. Thus, analyzing lectures of the instructors of xMOOCs would be helpful to evaluate the course quality and provide feedback to instructors and researchers. The current study aimed to portray the lecture styles of instructors in MOOCs from the perspective of natural language processing. Specifically, 129 course transcripts were downloaded from two major MOOC platforms. Two semantic analysis tools (linguistic inquiry and word count and Coh-Metrix) were used to extract semantic features including self-reference, tone, effect, cognitive words, cohesion, complex words, and sentence length. On the basis of the comments of students, course video review, and the results of cluster analysis, we found four different lecture styles: "perfect," "communicative," "balanced," and "serious." Significant differences were found between the different lecture styles within different disciplines for notes taking, discussion posts, and overall course satisfaction. Future studies could use fine-grained log data to verify the results of our study and explore how to use the results of natural language processing to improve the lecture of instructors in both MOOCs and traditional classes.

The Relationship Between Psychological Capital and Teacher Career Commitment in Ethnic Areas of China: The Mediating Effects of Gratitude and Career Well-Being.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics, relationships and mechanisms underlying the psychological capital, career commitment, gratitude and career well-being of teachers in ethnic areas. In total, 573 primary school and secondary school teachers in Sichuan Province (including 402 teachers in ethnic regions and 171 teachers in non-ethnic areas) were investigated. Following questionnaires were used to investigate these questions: "Psychological Capital Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary School Teachers," "Gratitude Questionnaire," "Teacher Career Well-being Questionnaire" and "Career Commitment Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary School Teachers." The results show that the psychological capital of teachers in ethnic areas is higher than that of teachers in non-ethnic areas. Teachers in ethnic areas have lower levels of career well-being and lower levels of gratitude than teachers in non-ethnic areas. There was no significant difference in career commitment between teachers in ethnic areas and teachers in non-ethnic areas. There were significant positive correlations among psychological capital, gratitude, career well-being and career commitment. Psychological capital can predict career commitment significantly and positively. The mediating effect of career well-being between teachers' psychological capital and career commitment was significant in both ethnic areas and non-ethnic areas. The chain of mediating effects between gratitude and career well-being was significant in non-ethnic areas. In conclusion, psychological capital can predict teacher career commitment effectively, and the prediction mechanism in ethnic areas is different from that in non-ethnic areas.