Technostress and time spent online. A cross-cultural comparison for teachers and students.

Introduction: Research shows that ICT is beneficial for academics and students, aiding in overcoming distance barriers, streamlining administration, and improving teaching and learning processes. However, the negative impact of technology, particularly technostress, are garnering attention. In the context of the concerns about technostress among higher education institutions (HEI), the aim of the study is to analyze the technostress creators and inhibitors for university teachers and students in different European countries. The topical concept of digital well-being is seen as "a subjective individual experience of optimal balance between the benefits and drawbacks obtained from mobile connectivity, focusing on the personal perception of what amount of time spent using technology is optimal so that well-being is preserved". Method: To explore specific aspects related to use of technology, two - parallel online surveys for academics (N = 446) and students (N = 660) from four European countries (Romania, Germany, Norway, and Finland) were conducted between November 2022 - January 2023. The surveys included the Technostress scale and the Technostress Inhibitors Scale, the Technology self-efficacy Scale, and a questionnaire focusing on socio-demographic aspects, work experience, academic field, dimensions related to the actual use of technology and participants perception on the optimal use of technology for work, learning or personal tasks, in terms of the period of day/week and amount of time spent. We also inquired about the social support given and received when using technology and the formal and informal rules, expectations, policies, punishments, and rewards regarding the use of technology. Results: The findings suggest that the perceived optimal use of technology is significantly lower than the actual use for all the contexts. Overuse of technology was associated with technostress. Our results also showed that technology self-efficacy and social support from colleagues and teachers are negatively associated with technostress. Country differences regarding technostress and time spent online were also observed. Discussions: Despite the needed caution in interpreting the results because of the unbalanced sample size across countries, the results could be used to develop research and support interventions within European countries to promote digital well-being, a better work-life balance with further positive effects on academic satisfaction and work/learning productivity.

Well-being and internal resources during the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to meaning in life and existential anxiety.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an event that placed humanity in a context where confrontation with uncertainty, isolation, life threats, and significant changes in one's life were on a scale that exceeded by far any previous individual or community crises. The interest of the present research was to investigate the relationship between meaning in life (MiL) and existential anxiety (EA) with personal internal resources such as creativity, playfulness, well-being, and personal meaning. A total of 451 participants from 48 countries (mean age 34.93 years, standard deviation 12.62, 31.9% men, 67.4% women) were questioned via online questionnaires between May and June 2020. Cluster analysis was performed on the meaning in life and existential anxiety that generated four categories of persons: Reactive, Superficial, Preoccupied, and Dedicated. Well-being and internal resources were associated mostly with the Dedicated type and less with the Reactive one. Arguments relying on the existential positive psychology suffering model and the hostile world scenario are presented to support the results and plead for interventions that elicit meaning, stimulate creativity, and guide people in finding purpose in order to ultimately promote psychological and mental health.