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Loneliness and Online Gambling-Community Participation of Young Social Media Users
Abstract
Individuals use online communities for social networking and to find similar others. These communities can be attractive for individuals who are dissatisfied with their offline relationships. This article reports two studies analyzing the daily participation in online gambling-communities. In Study 1, self-reported measures were used to examine the role of loneliness, excessive gambling, and Internet use in daily online gambling-community participation. In Study 2, a gambling-related vignette experiment was used to analyze how characteristics of online behavior predict daily online gambling-community participation. Both studies are based on three samples collected among Finnish (N = 1,200 and N = 230) and U.S. (N = 1,212) adolescents and young adults. In Finland and the U.S., daily online gambling-community participation was more likely among compulsive Internet users and individuals who gambled excessively. In Finland, loneliness moderated the effect between gambling problems and daily gambling-community participation, but in the U.S., loneliness had no moderating effect. Preferring pro-gambling to antigambling content also predicted more likely daily online gambling-community participation. Online gambling-communities are attractive for young individuals who experience gambling problems and are interested in gambling overall.
... According to the social compensation model (Sirola et al., 2019) and the social augmentation hypothesis (Song et al., 2014), loneliness motivates consumers to engage in online social activities to enhance their social world. Online social resources (e.g., social networking sites, social media platforms) are often readily available, representing an accessible medium to compensate for relationship deficits. ...
... Furthermore, vulnerable consumers (e.g., consumers in late adolescence) are more heavily impacted by loneliness (Pagan, 2020;Loh et al., 2021). Among them, loneliness has been associated with several psychological issues (Sirola et al., 2019). Relative to anxiety, loneliness exhibited a greater impact on feelings of happiness during COVID-19 lockdowns (Cauberghe et al., 2021). ...
... When modeled as a moderator, CL has been found to enhance the relationship between excessive gambling and participation in online gambling communities among adolescents and young adults (Sirola et al., 2019). CL also promotes the positive effect of affectionate gestures (e.g., hugging) on attitudes toward a target product imbued with anthropomorphic traits (Hadi and Valenzuela, 2014). ...
Treading on the heels of the spread of the coronavirus, the “loneliness virus” has been capturing territories globally. Consumers are not immune to loneliness. Although academics and the general public have recognized the devastating effects of loneliness, the academic attention given to consumer loneliness (CL) is scattered and fragmentary. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the antecedents (predictors and alleviators) and consequences (consumer behaviors, emotions, preferences, attitudes, and cognition) of CL in various consumption contexts. This review also presents findings on CL as a mediator and moderator in consumer studies. This work adds to the growing body of CL literature by synthesizing the existing findings and knowledge. More importantly, we present a future research agenda by linking CL to significant research lines and detailed implications for practitioners in the marketplace.
... Lonely individuals are also prone to excessive online behaviors as a coping strategy to escape everyday problems and loneliness (Kuss et al., 2014). According to several studies, loneliness is a common experience among excessive gamblers (Khazaal et al., 2017;Sirola et al., 2019;Vuorinen et al., 2021). Particularly during the pandemic, excessive Internet use and consequent addictive behaviors, such as problematic gambling, might have acted as maladaptive ways to cope with loneliness. ...
... Loneliness during the pandemic was measured with a three-item loneliness scale, which is a short yet comparable version of the full UCLA loneliness scale, developed for survey research (Hughes et al., 2004). The scale has been widely used in studies assessing loneliness, and it has shown good psychometric properties across different countries (Johansson et al., 2021;Sirola et al., 2019;Vuorinen et al., 2021). It has also been widely utilized in survey research during the COVID-19 pandemic (Johansson et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2020;MacDonald et al., 2022). ...
... As expected, loneliness was found to be associated with higher problem gambling severity, making it a potential risk factor for problem gambling. This aligns with previous studies (Khazaal et al., 2017;Sirola et al., 2019;Vuorinen et al., 2021), which emphasize that psychosocial problems often co-occur with addictive behaviors and that loneliness has adverse effects on well-being. As hypothesized, we also found that social support had a negative association with loneliness, indicating that individuals who have supportive social networks felt less lonely during the pandemic. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified several psychosocial risks and problem behaviors among vulnerable individuals. Given that gambling has high addictive potential, it is important to consider the underlying mechanisms of problem gambling. This study examined psychosocial factors associated with pandemic-time problem gambling.
Cross-sectional data were gathered via an online survey of 18–75-year-old Finnish, Swedish, and British respondents (n = 2,022) who reported having gambled at least occasionally during the pandemic. Measures included problem gambling, loneliness, COVID-19 worry, social support, and psychological resilience. Control variables included gender, age, and education. Structural equation modeling was used as an analytical technique.
Loneliness was found to be associated with problem gambling. While COVID-19 worry was not directly associated with problem gambling, it predicted higher loneliness, which in turn was associated with problem gambling. Evidence was not found regarding the protective role of resilience or social support in problem gambling. However, social support was found to be associated with higher problem gambling severity. Male gender and younger age were associated with problem gambling.
The results bring insight into underlying vulnerabilities regarding problem gambling during the pandemic. More focus should be placed on the quality and sources of social support, as well as on how psychosocial risk and protective factors might work differently among different populations of gamblers.
... Existing research suggests that there are several reasons to be concerned about the rapid growth of gambling markets and sports betting in particular. First, sports betting has been associated with a higher risk for gambling disorder (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), due in part the ability to gamble 24/7 discretely on mobile phones (Sirola et al., 2019) and the ability in many jurisdictions to make large, in-game bets and micro bets that facilitate impulsive and excessive spending (Barak et al., 2008). ...
... Online communities typically revolve around shared interests and experiences (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). There is some evidence that online communities are particularly attractive to individuals who experience issues with mental health (Barak et al., 2008), those who have comparatively little support in their offline lives (Csipke & Horne, 2007), and those who experience persistent negative emotional states such as loneliness (Sirola et al., 2019). ...
... For example, one study of Finnish adolescents and young adults found that daily online gambling community participation was associated with compulsive internet use and higher problem gambling scores. This study also found that loneliness moderated the relationship between problem gambling scores and gambling community participation in the Finnish, but not in the American, sample (Sirola et al., 2019). A related study reported that a stronger sense of belonging to an online community was also associated with higher problem gambling scores (Savolainen et al., 2020). ...
The current study looks at participation on a popular message board website (reddit.com) to see if recent expansions of sports betting in the US correspond with the growth of a mutual support group. Data for the study included the number of weekly posts on the r/problemgambling message board from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020. The current study applies Interrupted Time Series Analysis using the introduction of online sports betting in the US outside of Nevada as the intervention point. Thematic analyses of forum post titles (17,041 titles) and full posts drawn from 75 randomly selected days for the data collection period (558 posts) were also conducted. Results show that, after the intervention, there was a significant immediate increase and significant faster growth in the number of posts on r/problemgambling. Thematic analysis revealed increased discussion of American professional sports after the interruption date and criticism of States seeking to expand gambling availability. The growth of self-organizing online communities offers an opportunity to increase help-seeking for people experiencing harm related to their gambling participation. Monitoring these communities can provide early indication of the impacts of major policy changes on gambling behaviors.
... Notably, platforms are structured uniquely to enable specific uses. Previous research has highlighted that online-gambling communities are attractive to individuals who are interested in gambling overall and who experience psychosocial problems (Sirola et al., , 2019. ...
... Communities of people who seek problem-gambling recovery are found helpful in dealing with gambling-related problems and in feeling less alone with one's problems (Wood & Wood, 2009). Online-gambling communities are also more popular among lonely people who gamble excessively (Sirola et al., 2019). Thus, gambling-related online communities can compensate for the social exclusion associated with problem gambling and, consequently, improve an individual's life satisfaction. ...
... We further assume that the different underlying factors related to gambling activities may exist at the country level. According to Sirola et al. (2019), weak offline relationships are likely to increase the tendency of Finnish players to seek out online communities, which in turn increase their gambling activities. In this respect, online communities can harm life satisfaction. ...
Gambling is a potential hazard to life satisfaction, yet peer relationships online might buffer this risk. This study analyzed the ways problem gambling is associated with life satisfaction as well as the extent to which the use of online-gambling community participation and, alternatively, offline belonging affect this association. A web-based survey was conducted among people aged 15–25 in Finland (n = 1,200), the United States (n = 1,212), South Korea (n = 1,192), and Spain (n = 1,212). The main variables included life satisfaction, problem gambling measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen, online-gambling community participation, and offline belonging. Controls included compulsive internet use, hazardous drinking, psychological distress, income, age, and gender. Linear regression models were employed with country interactions. Results showed problem gambling had a negative relationship with life satisfaction, but the association was explained by control variables. Online-gambling community participation had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, especially among pathological gamblers who had poor offline relationships. Country comparisons revealed that the direct effect of excessive gambling and the compensating effect of online-gambling communities were most prominent in Finland.
... In addition, there are also some in-game interactional tools, such as chat opportunities, for gamblers, particularly in online poker (Khazaal et al. 2017;Schüll 2016;Smith et al. 2012) and in online social casino games . Participation in online communities with positive gambling attitudes is a risk factor for excessive gambling (Howe et al. 2019;Sirola et al. , 2019. A study by Sirola et al. (2019) found that sense of loneliness moderated the association between excessive gambling and daily online gambling community participation in Finland, indicating that lonely problem gamblers are most likely to actively participate in such communities. ...
... Participation in online communities with positive gambling attitudes is a risk factor for excessive gambling (Howe et al. 2019;Sirola et al. , 2019. A study by Sirola et al. (2019) found that sense of loneliness moderated the association between excessive gambling and daily online gambling community participation in Finland, indicating that lonely problem gamblers are most likely to actively participate in such communities. Online poker communities are mostly used for sharing poker experiences and seeking social reinforcement for gambling successes; these kinds of communities may also increase poker playing and help develop cognitive biases concerning gambling (Parke and Griffiths 2011). ...
... Online gambling and gaming communities have both differences and similarities regarding characteristics, reasons of use, and outcomes of use (see Table 3). In gambling studies, online communities are typically discussion forums and other virtual spaces that exist outside a game (Caputo 2015;Howe et al. 2019;Järvinen-Tassopoulos 2016;McGowan 2003;Mudry and Strong 2013;O'Leary and Carroll 2013;Parke and Griffiths 2011;Rantala and Sulkunen 2012;Rodda et al. 2018;Schüll 2016;Sirola et al. , 2019Wood and Wood 2009), but also some in-game interaction tools exist particularly in online poker (Khazaal et al. 2017;Schüll 2016;Smith et al. 2012) and in social casino games . Gaming communities, on the other hand, exist inherently embedded inside the game, as is the case particularly in MMORPGs and their guild-based systems (Badrinarayanan et al. 2014(Badrinarayanan et al. , 2015Ben-Ur et al. 2015;Fang et al. 2009;Gui 2018;Hota and Derbaix 2016;Jin et al. 2017;Pinto et al. 2015), but also external communities such as discussion forums exist for gamers (Ben-Ur et al. 2015;Y. ...
Gambling opportunities are facilitated by the growth of the Internet and social media platforms. Digital games also increasingly include monetary features, such as microtransactions, blurring the line between gambling and gaming. The Internet provides a variety of virtual communities for gamblers and gamers, but comprehensive research on these communities and their relevance in gambling and monetary gaming behaviors remains scarce. This paper summarizes research of online gambling and monetary gaming communities based on a systematic literature review. A systematic literature search was conducted from five databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Social Science Premium Collection, and EBSCOhost. The search was limited to empirical articles that focused on gambling or gaming involving money and examined online interaction between gamblers or gamers. Preliminary search resulted in 1056 articles, from which 55 were selected for the analyses based on pre-determined criteria. According to results, online communities serve different functions in gambling and gaming behaviors. Gambling communities are typically forums for discussing and sharing gambling experiences, strategies, and tips as well as gambling problems, while gaming communities are inherently embedded inside a game being an essential part of the gaming experience. Identification with virtual communities influences gambling behavior and monetary gaming behavior through mechanisms of perceived norms, social influence, and community feedback. Whereas some gambling communities may provide protection from excessive gambling habits, gaming communities seem to solely motivate gaming behavior and purchase intentions. The role of online communities should be acknowledged in prevention and treatment of gambling and gaming problems.
... In addition, there are also some in-game interactional tools, such as chat opportunities, for gamblers, particularly in online poker (Khazaal et al. 2017;Schüll 2016;Smith et al. 2012) and in online social casino games . Participation in online communities with positive gambling attitudes is a risk factor for excessive gambling (Howe et al. 2019;Sirola et al. , 2019. A study by Sirola et al. (2019) found that sense of loneliness moderated the association between excessive gambling and daily online gambling community participation in Finland, indicating that lonely problem gamblers are most likely to actively participate in such communities. ...
... Participation in online communities with positive gambling attitudes is a risk factor for excessive gambling (Howe et al. 2019;Sirola et al. , 2019. A study by Sirola et al. (2019) found that sense of loneliness moderated the association between excessive gambling and daily online gambling community participation in Finland, indicating that lonely problem gamblers are most likely to actively participate in such communities. Online poker communities are mostly used for sharing poker experiences and seeking social reinforcement for gambling successes; these kinds of communities may also increase poker playing and help develop cognitive biases concerning gambling (Parke and Griffiths 2011). ...
... Online gambling and gaming communities have both differences and similarities regarding characteristics, reasons of use, and outcomes of use (see Table 3). In gambling studies, online communities are typically discussion forums and other virtual spaces that exist outside a game (Caputo 2015;Howe et al. 2019;Järvinen-Tassopoulos 2016;McGowan 2003;Mudry and Strong 2013;O'Leary and Carroll 2013;Parke and Griffiths 2011;Rantala and Sulkunen 2012;Rodda et al. 2018;Schüll 2016;Sirola et al. , 2019Wood and Wood 2009), but also some in-game interaction tools exist particularly in online poker (Khazaal et al. 2017;Schüll 2016;Smith et al. 2012) and in social casino games . Gaming communities, on the other hand, exist inherently embedded inside the game, as is the case particularly in MMORPGs and their guild-based systems (Badrinarayanan et al. 2014(Badrinarayanan et al. , 2015Ben-Ur et al. 2015;Fang et al. 2009;Gui 2018;Hota and Derbaix 2016;Jin et al. 2017;Pinto et al. 2015), but also external communities such as discussion forums exist for gamers (Ben-Ur et al. 2015;Y. ...
Gambling is a growing trend worldwide, partly due to various gambling opportunities facilitated by the growth of the digital technologies. Moreover, online and video games increasingly include monetary features, blurring the line between gambling and gaming. Internet also offers tools for gamblers to form communities, but research on this area remains scarce. The aim of this presentation is to summarize research on online gambling communities based on a systematic literature review.
A systematic literature search was conducted from five databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Social Science Premium Collection and EBSCOhost. The search was limited to empirical articles that focused on gambling or gaming involving money and examined online interaction between gamblers or gamers.
According to our results, online communities serve different functions in gambling behavior. There are online gambling communities directly for gambling-related purposes such as sharing gambling tips, and communities focusing on gambling problems. Identifying with online gambling communities influences gambling behavior via social influence and perceived group norms.
Online gambling communities promote excessive gambling habits and purchase intentions, but also provide socio-emotional support for recovery from gambling problems. The role of online communities and their social influence should be acknowledged in prevention and treatment of gambling problems.
... Негативное влияние на психологическое благополучие также оказывают время, проводимое в социальных сетях, количество друзей, склонность к зависимому поведению (Сунцова, Бурдыко, 2018). Одними из наиболее рассматриваемых составляющих психологического благополучия является одиночество как чувство или эмоциональное переживание, характеризующееся ощущением покинутости, потери связей с другими людьми (Sirola et al., 2019). Показано, что формальные характеристики профиля социальной сети негативно связаны с переживанием одиночества (Горелова, Иноземцев, 2020). ...
... «Трехпунктовая шкала одиночества» использовалась для определения общего переживания одиночества (Sirola et al., 2019). Шкала включает три вопроса с вариантами ответа: 1 -почти никогда, 2 -иногда, 3 -часто. ...
Введение. Активное использование социальных сетей оказывает как позитивное, так и негативное влияние на психологическое благополучие. В последнее время тенденцией в исследованиях связей психологического благополучия и использования социальных сетей является учет различных факторов, таких как личностные черты, мотивы использования. Актуальным является вопрос о том, как связаны формальные характеристики использования социальных сетей, характеристики психологического благополучия и интенсивность включения социальных сетей в ежедневную активность подростков. Новизна работы заключается в изучении опосредующей роли одиночества в связях удовлетворенности жизнью и использования социальных сетей, что имеет особое значение для подростков как активных пользователей. Цель данного исследования – анализ связей между удовлетворенностью жизнью, одиночеством и интеграцией социальных сетей (медиа) в ежедневную активность, а также формальными параметрами использования социальных сетей. Методы. Выборку исследования составил 391 подросток в возрасте от 13 до 18 лет. Диагностировались формальные характеристики использования социальных сетей (время, проводимое в социальной сети, количество социальных сетей и количество друзей в социальных сетях). Также использовались: «Шкала интеграции социальных медиа» (M. A. Jenkins-Guarnieri et al.), «Шкала удовлетворенности жизнью» (Э. Динер; адаптация Д. А. Леонтьева, Е. Н. Осина) и «Трехпунктовая шкала одиночества» (A. Sirola et al.). Результаты. Удовлетворенность жизнью снижается, а переживание одиночества усиливается при более высокой интеграции социальных сетей в ежедневную активность подростка. Формальные характеристики вносят небольшой вклад в удовлетворенность жизнью и одиночество. Одиночество и удовлетворенность жизнью опосредуют взаимные связи с интеграцией социальных сетей в ежедневную активность. Обсуждение результатов. В целом, стремление уйти от одиночества за счет активного использования социальных сетей (медиа) усиливает неудовлетворенность жизнью, причем данный эффект сильнее выражен для девушек.
... Online gambling communities typically constitute discussion boards or internet forums where users share or discuss gambling experiences, strategies or gambling problems (Griffiths, 2010;Sirola et al., 2021). Survey studies revealed that high levels of engagement in online gambling communities occur more frequently in players suffering from higher levels of problematic gambling behaviour (Sirola et al., 2018(Sirola et al., , 2019. For example, amongst participants in a survey amongst Finnish gamblers (Sirola et al., 2018), 54.33% of online gambling forum users reported South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur & Blume, 1987) scores> 2 ("some problems with gambling"), whereas this was the case for only 15.58% of respondents who reported to have never visited such a community site (Sirola et al., 2018). ...
... Specifically for gambling, it further appears that self-reported gambling behaviour is not reliable due to misestimation of losses (Heirene et al., 2021). However, the participation in online gambling communities is linked to problem gambling (Sirola et al., 2018(Sirola et al., , 2019 and recently, there have been first successful attempts to predict actual mental health from social media posts on Facebook (Merchant et al., 2019). Still, linking actual gambling behaviour to behaviour in online gambling communities and to self-reports needs to be elucidated by future research. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to prevent its spread have had a negative impact on substance use behaviour. It is likely that social distancing and lockdown measures have also altered gambling behaviour, for instance shifting from land-based to online gambling. We used large-scale web scraping to analyse posting behaviour on a major German online gambling forum, gathering a database of more than 200k posts. We examined the usage of different subforums, i.e. terrestrial, online gambling and problem gambling sections, and changes in posting behaviour related to the casino closures that were part of the nationwide restrictions in Germany in 2020. There was a marked increase in newly registered users during the first lockdown compared to the preceding weeks, an increase in the number of posts in the online gambling subforum and concurrent decrease in the terrestrial gambling subforum. Further, the number of short-latency replies was higher during the first lockdown compared to the preceding weeks. Many users who posted in both the online and terrestrial forum contributed at least once to the problem gambling subforum, implying that the topic of problem gambling is widely discussed. Our findings may indicate a shift from terrestrial to online gambling during lockdown, and mirror the general increase in screen time and usage of online platforms after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyses help to identify lockdown-related effects on gambling behaviour. These potentially detrimental effects pose a special threat for individuals at risk and may require monitoring and special public health measures.
... Online gambling communities typically constitute discussion boards or internet forums where users share or discuss gambling experiences, strategies or gambling problems (Griffiths, 2010;Sirola et al., 2021). Survey studies revealed that high levels of engagement in online gambling communities occur more frequently in players suffering from higher levels of problematic gambling behaviour (Sirola, Kaakinen, & Oksanen, 2018;Sirola, Kaakinen, Savolainen, & Oksanen, 2019). For example, amongst participants in a survey amongst Finnish gamblers (Sirola et al., 2018), 54.33% of online gambling forum users reported South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur & Blume, 1987) scores > 2 ("some problems with gambling"), whereas this was the case for only 15.58% of respondents who reported to have never visited such a community site (Sirola et al., 2018). ...
... Similarly, changes in posting frequency, post length and the reply latencies in the problem gambling subforum do not necessarily represent changes in actual problem gambling behaviour or changes the prevalence of disordered gambling among forum users. Although the participation in online gambling communities is linked to problem and pathological gambling (Sirola et al., 2018(Sirola et al., , 2019, it remains unclear whether changes in participation, i.e. posting behaviour, are linked to changes in problem gambling. Linking actual gambling behaviour and selfreport represents an important avenue for future research. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to prevent its spread have had a negative impact on substance use behaviour and posed a special threat for individuals at risk. Problem gambling is a major public health concern, and it is likely that the lockdown and social distancing measures have altered gambling behaviour, for instance shifting from land-based to online gambling. In this study, we used large-scale web scraping to analyse posting behaviour on a major German online gambling forum, gathering a database of more than 200k posts. We examined the relative usage of different subforums, i.e. terrestrial, online gambling and problem gambling sections, posting frequency, and changes in posting behaviour related to the casino closures that were part of the nationwide restrictions in Germany in 2020. There was a marked increase in the number of newly registered users during the first lockdown compared to the weeks prior to the lockdown, which may reflect a shift from terrestrial to online gambling. Further, there was an increase in the number of posts in the online gambling subforum with a concurrent decrease in the number of posts in the terrestrial gambling subforum. An analysis of user types revealed that a substantial number of users who posted in both the online and terrestrial forum contributed at least once to the problem gambling subforum. This subforum contained the longest posts, which were on average twice as long as the average post. Modelling the relationship between reply frequency and latency between initial posts and replies showed that the number of short-latency replies (i.e. replies posted within seven hours after the initial post) was substantially higher during the first lockdown compared to the preceeding weeks.The increase during the first lockdown may reflect the general marked increase in screen time and/or usage of online platforms and media after the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The analyses may help to identify lockdown-related effects on gambling behaviour. These potentially detrimental effects on mental health, including addiction and problem gambling, may require monitoring and special public health measures.
... Research on recreational gambling forums has explored the characteristics of the people who use these forums, and has helped to illuminate the types of posts made to these forums. Users of gambling forums are younger, typically male, heavier users of the internet, and are likely to already be classified as at risk or probable pathological gamblers [44][45][46]. There is mixed evidence that they might be more lonely from a subsample analysis [45]. ...
... Users of gambling forums are younger, typically male, heavier users of the internet, and are likely to already be classified as at risk or probable pathological gamblers [44][45][46]. There is mixed evidence that they might be more lonely from a subsample analysis [45]. Users of gambling forums reported greater use of payday loans and using online (real-money) casino sites, but were less likely to visit gambling support forums [44]. ...
Purpose of Review
Social media enables a range of possibilities in the way gamblers and gambling operators interact and content communicate with gambling. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesise the extant literature to identify the ways in which social media has been investigated in the context of gambling.
Recent Findings
A systematic review of the literature identified 41 papers that collected primary data pertinent to gambling and social media from multiple disciplines. These papers broadly fell into three themes: communication, community and calculation (of sentiment). Papers on communication focused on the content of gambling advertising on social media and the impact on people exposed to it. Studies of gambling communities studied the activity and structures of discussion groups on social media concerning recreational or problematic gambling. Papers on calculation collated social media data to assess sentiment and compared it against betting odds.
Summary
There is an emerging multidisciplinary literature that has looked at the use of social media in relation to gambling. There is preliminary evidence that the content and the reach of gambling advertising on social media is a source of concern, particularly for younger people. The themes discussed on gambling support forums appear to be common across communities, focusing on negative emotions, recovery, addictive products and financial support. Using social media to assess sentiment appears to be particularly effective at identifying potential upsets in sporting matches. Future suggestions for research are explored.
... Young people are the most active Internet users and they spend a significant amount of time online [52,64]. Consequently, they can become exposed to risky content, like that involving gambling, through various settings, including online video games and social networking services, or actively seek for such content or communities from numerous sites [4,[65][66][67]. Those youths who have strong and supportive offline relationships might be more resilient and better prepared to face potentially harmful online content, while youths with strong online relationships might be more vulnerable to various risk behavior content and more susceptible to participating in risk behavior [44,46]. ...
... Additionally, these findings suggest that similar mechanisms of online grouping and social media identity bubble formation occur across different countries and cultural contexts. One possible explanation for the results may be that, regardless of cultural context, youths encounter gambling-related or otherwise risky content online, making them vulnerable to such risk behaviors [65][66][67]. Alternatively, it is possible that youths who participate in gambling are more likely to seek out similar-minded others online to get validation for their gambling-related identity. ...
The objective of this study was to examine if belonging to online communities and social media identity bubbles predict youth problem gambling. An online survey was administered to 15–25-year-old participants in the United States (N = 1212), South Korea (N = 1192), Spain (N = 1212), and Finland (N = 1200). The survey measured two dimensions of online behavior: perceived sense of belonging to an online community and involvement in social media identity bubbles. Belonging to an online community was examined with a single item and involvement in social media identity bubbles was measured with the six-item Identity Bubble Reinforcement Scale. The South Oaks Gambling Screen was used to assess problem gambling. Statistical analyses utilized linear regression modeling. According to the analyses, strong sense of belonging to an online community was associated with higher problem gambling, but the association was observed mainly among those young individuals who were also involved in social media identity bubbles. For those youths who did not indicate identity bubble involvement, online relationships appeared to function as those offline. Some differences across the four countries were observed but overall, the results indicate that social media identity bubbles could partly explain the harmful influence that some online relations have on youth behavior.
... In another cross-sectional Finnish study looking at a population sample (Nordmyr et al., 2016), loneliness was associated with problem gambling. Sirola et al. (2019) found that excessive gambling was higher among young Finns who reported higher levels of loneliness, with loneliness also positively moderating the association between excessive gambling and daily online gambling community participation in one of the included study samples. On the other hand, a Finnish study did not show loneliness to be associated with at-risk or problem gambling among young men or women in the most comprehensive models applied in the study (Edgren et al., 2016). ...
... This motivates the study of social circumstances and especially the under-researched psychosocial risk factors evidencing influences on, or associations with, gambling or problem gambling in this context. Apparent differences in three included studies encompassing comparative elements with participants from the U.S. Sirola et al., 2019) and France (Pöysti & Majamäki, 2013) mean that the applicability of review results to other contexts is cautioned. ...
Gambling is a relatively common activity in the Nordic countries, while the incidence and prevalence of problem gambling is relatively stable in this context. Social networks and relationships (e.g., gambling activities among family members and peers) have been put forward as relevant factors to consider when monitoring the epidemiological pathways in regard to gambling and problem gambling. The research on gambling and functional or qualitative aspect of networks and relationships (here labelled psychosocial factors), is however an important emerging area, warranting a synthesis of the evidence. We systematically reviewed the evidence on psychosocial risk factors in relation to gambling and problem gambling in Nordic gambling research. Included articles were identified through systematic searches in 10 scientific databases, covering the time period January 2000–July 2019. Following a systematic screening procedure, the final data set consisted of 21 original studies applying various statistical, interview or narrative methods. The review highlights both less researched psychosocial phenomena and also synthesises the evidence on the most commonly featured psychosocial factors in the included publications – loneliness and social support – evidencing conflicting findings in relation to gambling activities and problem gambling. Although few studies carried evidence to corroborate causal inferences, the risk factors and related epidemiological pathways we identify highlight focal areas that should be considered in both future prevention research and practice, broadening the arena for prevention strategies targeting new health challenges.
... Informal Guardians RAT emphasizes how significant informal guardians are to deter crime from occurring (Cohen & Felson, 1979), which also has been supported by multiple gambling studies (Shadmanfaat et al., 2020;Sirola et al., 2019). A gambling review site in this context can act as an informal guardian due to one major piece of information it providesa blacklist of online gambling sites. ...
Despite the recent proliferation of legal online gambling in the Unites States, offshore gambling sites still remain prevalent, causing various problems in the U.S. Although numerous law violations occur in this domain, prior research has reported limited information about offshore gambling, mostly focusing on offshore gamblers’ characteristics and motivations. Using routine activities theory, this study attempted to understand environmental and theoretical factors that affect the use of offshore sites by focusing on offshore gambling-generating contexts that involve offshore sites and online casino reviews. Major findings show that the online visibility of offshore sites may be a key predictor of the use of the sites by U.S. players. In addition, online casino reviews providing a blacklist of online gambling sites served as informal guardians, helping players avoid unreliable offshore gambling sites that pose a risk to their customers. Policy implications were suggested based on the findings and provided insights toward effective online gambling regulatory efforts.
... Research has shown that people may use gambling as a way of escape from negative emotional states such as depression or stress, for enjoyment or excitement from an adrenalin-driven activity, or for social aspects [24,25]. Furthermore, in many countries including NZ, gambling availability is disproportionately higher in areas of lower socio-economic status, exacerbating the risk to disadvantaged populations living in such areas [26][27][28]; In other words, the gambling environment and gambling activity may provide an alternative social networking platform, facilitating human interaction and leading to a sense of belonging for those who are socially isolated [29,30]. ...
Multiple factors are associated with disordered gambling, with some populations having a greater risk for developing disordered gambling than others. The present study, utilising data previously collected for a New Zealand (NZ) national gambling survey, explored the associations of social connectedness and leisure activities with risky gambling behaviour and quality of life. Poorer social connectedness and leisure activities were found to be associated with increased gambling risk and poorer quality of life, respectively. Social connectedness and leisure activities strongly predicted type of gambling activities and quality of life. Furthermore, Māori (NZ's indigenous population) had lower social connectedness and fewer leisure activities, and a greater gambling risk, as well as higher psychological distress, than the NZ European/Other population. These findings indicate that the risk of progressing from recreational gambling to risky gambling is relatively higher for Māori, and that social connectedness and leisure activities could be contributing factors for this increased risk. It is, therefore, important that social connectedness and leisure activities are seriously considered in public health and treatment efforts to reduce gambling harm for vulnerable populations.
... are scored from 1 (never) to 4 (always). Similar to impulsive behaviors, previous research has linked loneliness to problematic gambling and gaming [76,77]. Therefore, loneliness was controlled for, in order to avoid possible third-variable explanations for our results. ...
Past research indicates strong monetary motives for gambling often elevate an individual’s risk of experiencing symptoms of gambling disorder, with personal relative deprivation (PRD) and upward mobility (UM) identified as key factors in this relationship. Nevertheless, few studies have examined how financial motives, PRD, and UM might interact for people playing modern video games—many of which offer financial incentives to encourage participation. Due to the overlap between gambling and (video) gaming, evidence suggests disordered gambling and disordered gaming might also share similarities. Therefore, the present study explored whether PRD influences associations between playing video games for financial motives, symptoms of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), and UM in two samples: 797 college students (Study 1) and 179 adult gamers over 25 years old (Study 2). Results from Study 1 revealed more PRD predicted more IGD symptoms, with higher financial gaming motives mediating the relationship. In Study 2, PRD also predicted IGD severity, but only coping motives appeared to mediate the positive association between PRD and IGD severity. In both samples, perceived UM inversely moderated the effect of PRD on one’s financial or coping gaming motives. These findings suggest financial motives for video games might lead to more problematic forms of participation for younger adults and negative perceptions of PRD and UM might interact, similar to gambling, to elevate a gamer’s vulnerability for IGD.
... Earlier research indicates that actively visiting online gambling communities is a potential risk factor for problem gambling especially in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Moreover, excessive gambling, in broad terms, can be defined as an addictive or impulse-control disorder characterized by mental and financial harms caused by gambling (Sirola, et al., 2019). ...
Considering the pros and cons of online gambling and money laundering it is observed that it has some visible and far-reaching effects on the morality, economy, society, politics, and law and order. In this circumstance, considering the matter serious and adopting a comprehensive mechanism to tackle gambling-related issues strictly this paper is presented along-with few findings and recommendations.
... Earlier research indicates that actively visiting online gambling communities is a potential risk factor for problem gambling especially in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Moreover, excessive gambling, in broad terms, can be defined as an addictive or impulse-control disorder characterized by mental and financial harms caused by gambling (Sirola, et al., 2019). ...
Online Gambling and Money Laundering: Combatting the Challenges
... The variable loneliness was measured with the 3-item short loneliness scale based on the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA), which is used as a unidimensional measure of loneliness [48]. The scale has been widely used in multinational loneliness studies [94,95]. The response scale ranged from 1 (rarely) to 3 (often). ...
This article introduces and applies an integrative model of cyberharassment victimization. The model combines routine activity theory (RAT), the general theory of crime (GTC), and the personal resources approach to analyze risk factors for victimization while acknowledging the protective role of a sense of mastery. Survey respondents were aged 15 to 25 years (N = 4816) from the U.S., Finland, Spain, and South Korea. Logistic regression models were used to analyze cyberharassment victimization. RAT-related factors were positively associated with cyberharassment victimization. Low self-control was positively associated with cyberharassment victimization in the U.S., Finland, and Spain but not in South Korea. The sense of mastery was negatively associated with cyberharassment victimization in the U.S., Finland, and South Korea but not in Spain. Protective factors against cyberharassment victimization should be utilized in future studies as adequate knowledge of protective factors could assist policymakers in generating preventative measures against cyberharassment. Our study demonstrates the benefits of integrating criminological theories and protective factors in studies using cross-national data to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of cyberharassment.
... Virtual communities can have a significant influence on individuals' attitudes and behaviour, particularly for young people (Sirola et al., 2019) as virtual community identification guides its members' feelings, beliefs, and behaviour (Kim et al., 2012). This identification significantly relates to trust in community members and collective efficacy. ...
Predicting personality traits from social networking site profiles can help to assess individual differences in verbal reasoning without using long questionnaires. Inspired by earlier studies, which investigated whether abstract-thinking ability are predictable by social networking sites data, we used supervised machine learning to predict verbal-reasoning ability based on a proposed set of features extracted from virtual community membership. A large sample (N = 3,646) of Russian young adults aged 18 to 22 years approved access to the data from their social networking accounts and completed an online test on verbal reasoning. We experimented with binary classification machine-learning models for verbal-reasoning prediction. Prediction performance was tested on isolated control subsamples for men and women. The results of prediction on AUC-ROC metrics for control subsamples over 0.7 indicated reasonably good performance on predicting verbal-reasoning level. We also investigated the contribution of virtual community’s genres to verbal reasoning level prediction for male and female participants. Theoretical interpretations of results stemming from both Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and behavioural genomics are discussed, including the implication that virtual communities make up a non-shared environment that can cause variance in verbal reasoning. We intend to conduct studies to explore the implications of the results further.
... Lonely individuals with psychological and social problems are drawn by online communities (Sirola et al., 2019). The relevance of online communities has increased, especially with the rise of social networking sites and social media, during the last few decades (Keipi et al., 2017;Mikal et al., 2016). ...
Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being and mental health are a concern worldwide. This article is based on two longitudinal studies that investigated the role of social media use in loneliness and psychological distress before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 utilized nationally representative 3-point longitudinal data (n = 735) collected in 2017–2020 on the Finnish population. Study 2 utilized 5-point longitudinal data (n = 840) collected in 2019–2021 representing the Finnish working population. We analyzed the data using multilevel mixed-effects regression analysis. A longitudinal analysis of Study 1 showed that perceived loneliness did not increase among the Finnish population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stronger involvement in social media identity bubbles predicted lower loneliness during the pandemic. Study 2 results showed that since the outbreak of the pandemic, psychological distress has increased among lonely individuals but not among the general population. Involvement in social media identity bubbles predicted generally lower psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it did not buffer against higher psychological distress among lonely individuals. The findings suggest that perceived loneliness is a risk factor for prolonged negative mental health effects of the pandemic. Social media identity bubbles can offer meaningful social resources during times of social distancing but cannot protect against higher psychological distress among those who perceive themselves as often lonely.
... These data are especially relevant since they could be indicating a change in adolescent leisure and in their way of relating, with both being mediated by the use of ICTs (Espuny, González, Lleixà & Gisbert, 2011); this would translate into an increase in spending on online items (e.g., microtransactions, loot boxes, sports betting), rather than on other conventional activities such as, for example, going to the movies with friends or renting a football pitch (Megías, 2020). These new forms of leisure could become linked to the normalization of virtual behaviours, which could motivate a change in attitude towards gambling, destigmatizing its use and leading to it being considered one more means of peer group integration (Sirola, Kaakinen, Savolainen & Oksanen, 2019). Consequently, as occurs in other problematic behaviours (Herrero, 2003), adolescents may be less reluctant to buy loot boxes if their peers also buy them (King, Russell, Delfabbro & Polisena, 2020). ...
Loot boxes are items within video games which players pay to open and, ultimately, to randomly obtain an object whose value is initially unknown. Being easily accessible for both teenagers and adults, loot boxes have been associated with gambling. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of loot boxes and to analyze whether it is associated with guilt, loss of control, and emotional distress. To this end, 475 participants (266 adolescents and 209 adults) were surveyed on their habits regarding loot boxes and gaming. The results showed that teenagers invest more money in loot boxes than adults. This expenditure increases when a new item is announced on online platforms (Twitch, YouTube). Additionally, not obtaining the coveted items, which is common due to loot box randomness, predicts greater levels of guilt and emotional distress, while obtaining them predicts subsequent loss of control. Thus, 45.5% reported guilt over purchasing, 50% distress and 17% loss of control. Summarizing, loot boxes are increasingly present in video games, and owing to their psycho-emotional outcomes, it is necessary for future research to address this matter in order to develop prevention strategies and to provide support to vulnerable populations.
... Este gasto en cajas botín podría acrecentarse cuando las compañías de videojuegos anuncian nuevos contenidos, tal y como sugieren las respuestas de los participantes en esta investigación Estos datos revisten especial relevancia ya que podrían estar indicando un cambio en el ocio adolescente y en su modo de relacionarse, ambos mediados por el uso de las TICs (Espuny, González, Lleixà y Gisbert, 2011), y que se traduciría en un aumento en el gasto de artículos en línea (ej., microtransacciones, loot boxes, apuestas deportivas), en lugar de en otras actividades convencionales como, por ejemplo, ir al cine con los amigos o alquilar una pista de fútbol (Megías, 2020). Estas nuevas formas de ocio podrían llegar a vincularse con la normalización de las conductas virtuales, lo que podría motivar un cambio de actitud con respecto al juego de azar, desestigmatizándose su uso y considerándose un medio más de integración en el grupo de iguales (Sirola, Kaakinen, Savolainen y Oksanen, 2019). Consecuentemente, al igual que ocurre en otros consumos problemáticos (Herrero, 2003), los adolescentes podrían ser menos reticentes a comprar loot boxes si sus compañeros también las compran (King, Russell, Delfabbro y Polisena, 2020). ...
Las loot boxes son cajas dentro de los videojuegos que los usuarios pagan por abrir y obtener, al azar, un objeto cuyo valor inicialmente desconocen. Tanto la población adolescente como la adulta tiene fácil acceso a ellas, y se han relacionado con el juego de azar. El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar el consumo de loot boxes y explorar si se asociaba con culpabilidad, pérdida de control y malestar. Para ello, 475 participantes (266 adolescentes y 209 adultos) respondieron a un cuestionario ex profeso de elaboración propia. Los resultados mostraron que son los adolescentes los que más dinero invierten en cajas botín. Este gasto se ve aumentado cuando se anuncia nuevo contenido en las plataformas multimedia online (entre ellas, Twitch, YouTube). Además, no obtener los ítems que desean, lo cual es frecuente por su aleatoriedad, predice mayores niveles de culpabilidad y malestar, mientras que su obtención predice la posterior pérdida de control. Así, el 45,5% de los participantes refirieron culpabilidad tras la compra, el 50% malestar y el 17% pérdida de control. En síntesis, las loot boxes están cada vez más presentes en los entornos virtuales de los adolescentes y adultos, y dadas las consecuencias psicológicas y emocionales que parecen tener, es necesario seguir abordando esta problemática en futuras investigaciones en aras de prevenir y apoyar a la población vulnerable.
... This study contributes social media community groups researches represented by Davis, Piven & Breazeale [16], Myrick et al. [17] and Sirola et al. [18], enriching it by providing insights on the content and visual aspects which promote brand trust. ...
The study covered by the present paper sought to look into a range of factors affecting the building of trust in brands among social media community groups. For the purpose of the present study, in order to measure the influence of visual content, the authors of the present paper investigated its visual as well as emotional characteristics while factoring in consumer engagement variables. In order to test our hypotheses, two different visual advertisements of an artificial hypothetical apparel brand were created. The robustness of the results was ensured by the findings of the representative consumer survey and a factor and regression analysis. The survey concluded that engagement with the brand-created content by social media community groups may be viewed as a proxy variable when studying the consumer confidence in a brand within consumer groups. The authors of the paper also argue that an image-based content identity does affect the engagement with the content created by a brand within the social network community groups. The difference impact of the cognitive, emotional or behavioral involvement of social media community group members onto the formation of brand trust is revealed.
... Starting from the connecting networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, Gmail, etc.), going through multimedia systems (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Tiktok, etc.), blog sites (WordPress, blogger, etc.), geolocation systems (Google earth, foursquare), online shopping sites (eBay, honey, amazon, etc.), to educational sites (Research gate, Coursera, Springer, etc.), internet has everything everywhere. Only because of this digital network we are able to communicate easily with unknown people and in many cases with the one lost earlier; virtual gathering of family and friends is possible which triggers human emotion (Sirola, Kaakinen, Savolainen, & Oksanen, 2019). ...
21st century has been era of digitalization which is totally assisted by internet networks. Internet has been developing its wings in every possible way in order to make human life simpler, luxurious and entertaining. Withholding many beauties, it has been favoriting all generation people. But young millennials who are born simultaneously with the emerge of internet technology are found to be more fascinated and attracted by this technology and thus are in the 1st rank in internet use. The COVID-19 pandemic has something powerful to change many things. Along with human health and psychology, it had also changed the internet use pattern of the people worldwide. In this review, impact of pandemic on internet use behavior mostly by college studying youths is analyzed. Time spent by surfing internet is hiked unexpectedly due to this pandemic as daily scheduled has of many citizens is altered. It is found that some of the students have taken this as an opportunity to explore and develop knowledge about new technologies. Online class has been normalized in many places and they are not deprived of education. But various disastrous impact is also seen. Third world countries students are having problem in study due to poor internet management. Students are facing problem of Internet Addiction using it all time. Mental stress, anxiety, aggressiveness, etc. can be seen when they are disconnected from internet for certain period of time. Here seems to drag attention of socialists and psychologist towards measures that needs to be adopted to minimize these dreadful impacts of internet use and emphasize more on benefits.
... Loneliness plays an important role in excessive behaviours. For example, recreational drug use is higher among the lonely [20] and problem gamblers experience more loneliness [21,22]. In addition, a great deal of research has associated loneliness with Internet and digital addiction [21,[23][24][25]. ...
Background and aims:
Loneliness and a low sense of mastery are associated with excessive gambling, but the underlying processes of these relationships remain unstudied. Because psychological distress can increase vulnerability to excessive gambling, we investigated its mediating role in these relationships among young people. To meet the need for cross-country research, we also observed how these relationships occur in four countries with different cultures.
Design, setting, and participants:
Demographically balanced cross-sectional survey data were collected from 15-25-year-olds in Finland (n = 1200; 50% male), the United States (n = 1212; 49.8% male), South Korea (n = 1192; 49.6% male), and Spain (n = 1212; 51.2% male).
Measurements:
Excessive gambling was measured with the South Oaks Gambling Screen, psychological distress was assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, loneliness was measured with the three-item Loneliness Scale, and low sense of mastery was assessed with the Pearlin Mastery Scale. Associations were examined first using zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses with excessive gambling as the outcome. In addition, path analyses were performed to study how loneliness and low sense of mastery relate to excessive gambling, with psychological distress as the mediating variable.
Findings:
Loneliness and low sense of mastery were associated indirectly with excessive gambling via psychological distress in all country samples. Low sense of mastery was also directly associated with excessive gambling. There was a direct association between loneliness and excessive gambling only in samples from South Korea and Spain.
Conclusions:
Psychological distress is an important factor in understanding how loneliness and sense of mastery relate to gambling.
... In the absence of face-to-face social contact, people may try to alleviate loneliness by engaging with mass or social media (Rubin and Rubin, 1985;Pittman and Reich, 2016;Sirola et al., 2019) or by listening to music (Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014;Schäfer et al., 2020). Even solitary music listening can be a social experience, conveying a sense of presence of another person. ...
... In the absence of face-to-face social contact, people may try to alleviate loneliness by engaging with mass or social media (Rubin and Rubin, 1985;Pittman and Reich, 2016;Sirola et al., 2019) or by listening to music (Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014;Schäfer et al., 2020). Even solitary music listening can be a social experience, conveying a sense of presence of another person. ...
The popularity of virtual concerts increased as a result of the social distancing requirements of the coronavirus pandemic. We aimed to examine how the characteristics of virtual concerts and the characteristics of the participants influenced their experiences of social connection and kama muta (often labeled "being moved"). We hypothesized that concert liveness and the salience of the coronavirus would influence social connection and kama muta. We collected survey responses on a variety of concert and personal characteristics from 307 participants from 13 countries across 4 continents. We operationalized social connection as a combination of feelings and behaviors and kama muta was measured using the short kama muta scale (Zickfeld et al., 2019). We found that (1) social connection and kama muta were related and predicted by empathic concern, (2) live concerts produced more social connection, but not kama muta, than pre-recorded concerts, and (3) the salience of the coronavirus during concerts predicted kama muta and this effect was completely mediated by social connection. Exploratory analyses also examined the influence of social and physical presence, motivations for concert attendance, and predictors of donations. This research contributes to the understanding of how people can connect socially and emotionally in virtual environments.
... Among psychosocial factors, loneliness plays an important role in excessive behaviours. For example, recreational drug use is higher among the lonely, [11] and problem gamblers experience more loneliness [12,13]. In addition, a great deal of research has associated loneliness with Internet and digital addiction [12,[14][15][16]. ...
Background and aims Loneliness and a low sense of mastery have been associated with excessive gambling, but the underlying processes of these relationships remain unstudied. Because psychological distress can increase vulnerability to excessive gambling, we investigated its mediating role in these relationships among young people. To meet the need for cross-country research, we also observed how these relationships occur in four countries with different cultures. Design, setting and participants Demographically balanced cross-sectional survey data were collected for 15–25-year-olds in Finland (n=1200; 50% male), the United States (n=1212; 49.8% male), South Korea (n=1192; 49.6% male) and Spain (n=1212; 51.2% male). Measurements Excessive gambling was measured with the South Oaks Gambling Screen, psychological distress was assessed with the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire, loneliness was measured with the Three-Item Loneliness Scale and low sense of mastery was assessed with the Pearlin Mastery Scale. Associations were examined first using zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses with excessive gambling as the outcome. In addition, path analyses were performed to study how loneliness and low sense of mastery relate to excessive gambling, with psychological distress as the mediating variable. Findings Loneliness and low sense of mastery were associated indirectly with excessive gambling via psychological distress in all country samples. Low sense of mastery was also directly associated with excessive gambling. There was a direct association between loneliness and excessive gambling only in samples from South Korea and Spain. Conclusions Psychological distress is an important factor in understanding how loneliness and sense of mastery relate to gambling.
... Social development Social development withdrawal from social activities, and becoming lazier, addicted to SN, depressed, bored and leading to sickness and being unhealthy. (Sirola et al., 2019;Vernon et al., 2017) Physical development Physical implications may be discouraging students from having a face-to-face meeting with family and friends, and preventing them from participating in other activities, such as shopping, watching television, and competing their work and study on time. (Fox and Moreland, 2015;Olsson et al., 2020) Security and privacy Using SN inappropriately will increase privacy and security concerns. ...
This study aims to determine the benefits, risks, awareness, cultural factors, and sustainability, allied to social networking (SN) use in the higher education (HE) sector in Middle Eastern countries, namely Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Using an online survey, 1180 complete responses were collected and analyzed using the statistical confirmatory factor analysis method. The use of SN in the Middle Eastern HE sector has the capacity to promote and motivate students to acquire professional and personal skills for their studies and future workplace; however, the use of SN by tertiary students is also associated with several risks: isolation, depression, privacy, and security. Furthermore, culture is influenced by using SN use, since some countries shifted from one dimension to another based on Hofstede's cultural framework. The study new findings are based on a sample at a specific point in time within a culture. The study findings encourage academics to include SN in unit activities and assessments to reap the benefits of SN, while taking steps to mitigate any risks that SN poses to students. Although other studies in the Middle East examined the use of Learning Management System and Facebook in, HE as a means of engaging students in discussions and communications, however, this study contributes a better understanding of the benefits and risks, awareness, culture, and sustainability, associated with the use of SN in the HE sector in the Middle East. Finally, the paper concludes with an acknowledgment of the study limitations and suggestions for future research.
... Previous studies have shown that a lack of social interaction among problem gamblers is, in fact, associated on the one hand with a higher likelihood to engage in addictive behaviors, and on the other, to an increased need to reconnect. 21,25,70 However, Auer et al. 31 suggested that the reduced trends in online gambling that they had observed in the first half of 2020 may be associated with (i) individuals' financial conservatism in view of a possible upcoming economic crisis, (ii) a general reluctance to gamble in front of members of their household, and (iii) the fact that they may be engaging in more "quality time" with their families (p.7). Therefore, although our results indicate a possible misalignment between the public's perception of gambling addiction on Twitter and other empirical studies on gambling during the pandemic, we suggest caution in their interpretation, inviting future research to monitor the discourse on gambling addiction in the next stages of the pandemic, possibly including data from different media sources and multiple national contexts. ...
The present study explored the topics and sentiment associated with gambling addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic, using topic modeling and sentiment analysis on tweets in English posted between 17-24th April 2020. The study was exploratory in nature, with its main objective consisting of inductively identifying topics embedded in user-generated content. We found that a five-topic model was the best in representing the data corpus, including: (i) the public’s perception of gambling addiction amid the COVID-19 outbreak, (ii) risks and support available for those who stay at home, (iii) the users’ interpretation of gambling addiction, (iv) forms of gambling during the pandemic, and (v) gambling advertising and impact on families. Sentiment analysis showed a prevalence of underlying fear, trust, sadness, and anger, across the corpus. Users viewed the pandemic as a driver of problematic gambling behaviors, possibly exposing unprepared individuals and communities to forms of online gambling, with potential long-term consequences and a significant impact on health systems. Despite the limitations of the study, we hypothesize that enhancing the presence of mental health operators and practitioners treating problem gambling on social media might positively impact public mental health and help prevent health services from being overwhelmed, in times when healthcare resources are limited.
... The study included a survey section with questions on social media use, social relations, gambling and addiction problems, and a social psychological vignette experiment. In this paper, we only report results of the self-reported measure of online identity bubble involvement (IBRS) and the experimental part of the study (more comprehensive results of the survey section are reported elsewhere, see, e.g., Savolainen et al., 2020a,b,c;Sirola et al., 2018Sirola et al., , 2019. The surveys in the four countries were mainly identical; however, minor modifications were made to fit the various cultural settings better. ...
Social media tends to gather users around social cliques consisting of similar-minded individuals and shared identities. These online group processes can have significant influence on user behavior, which is alarming when considering risky behaviors such as gambling. This study examined how online clique involvement predicts young people’s interest in gambling content and following observed group norms on social media. Survey respondents were 15–25-year-olds from Finland (n = 1,200), the United States (n = 1,212), South Korea (n = 1,192) and Spain (n = 1,212). A self-reported measure of online clique involvement and a gambling-related social media vignette experiment were utilized. The results show that online clique involvement was related to higher interest in gambling content. Content liked by a majority gathered more interest, indicating conformity to a group norm. This finding was especially true among participants with past involvement in online cliques, and the association was strongest in South Korea. The tendency to participate in online clique behavior creates a potentially risky setting when encountering online gambling content, because it may accentuate the effect of observed group norms. Interacting with gambling content increases the visibility of such content due to algorithmic filtering technologies, which can fuel gambling-related intentions and behaviors and normalize gambling.
... Because the need to belong has moved from being an ancillary theory to a foundational theory; we can increase our understanding of a broad range of social psychological phenomena by examining the role that the need to belong plays in those phenomena. In just the last two years the need to belong was used to increase understanding of drug addiction (Inagaki et al., 2020), politics (McDonald et al. (2020, religion (Lewis et al., 2020), mental illness (Kranabetter & Niessen, 2019), sports (Herbison et al., 2019), racial identity (Thelamour et al., 2019), organizational behavior (Shanock et al., 2019), radicalization (Ozer & Bertelsen, 2019), teenage parenting and education (Whiteway, 2019), gambling (Sirola et al., 2019), physical fitness (Evans et al., 2019), pet ownership (Johnson & Bruneau, 2019), selfesteem (Buckingham et al., 2019), metacognition (Gascó et al., 2018), video games (Coulson et al., 2018), racial and gender inequalities in STEM (Casad et al., 2018), persuasion (Ackerman, 2018), eating behavior (Her & Seo, 2018) stereotyping (Dennehy et al., 2018), and cross-cultural differences (Park et al., 2018). ...
This special issue celebrates the impact of Baumeister and Leary’s paper on the need to belong on its 25th birthday. This seminal work identified the importance of social connections for humans, suggested that the human need to belong is analogous to our needs for food and water, and identified the invisible hand that guides much of the research in social psychology. The first three articles in this special issue provide examples of how the need to belong has expanded from Baumeister and Leary’s original conception of a need for close relationships to a broader need for all kinds of social connections. The next two articles demonstrate the impact of the need to belong. The final two papers give the final word to the paper’s original authors, Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary.
... The ways of interacting with the environment have also changed [8,9]. In many aspects, social networks have made it possible to communicate with people who are unknown or with whom contact has been lost; they make it possible for people who are far away from each other to meet and facilitate encounters with family and friends [10]. ...
Within the framework of digital sustainability, the increase in Internet consumption, and especially online social networks, offers social benefits, but is not without its drawbacks. For example, it can lead to psychological and/or psychiatric disorders in some people. Numerous researches are highlighting the similarities of these addictions with the consumption of toxic substances. University students are heavy users of the Internet and, in certain situations, addiction to online social networks can be the result of depression, harassment, and anxiety, among others, affecting their daily life, including their academic responsibilities. In recent months, an anomaly has occurred that may have contributed to intensifying this problem, namely the confinement produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the whole world to a greater or lesser extent. In this cross-sectional study, with a descriptive and quantitative methodology, students from 14 Spanish universities were investigated in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to understand the effects of this situation on the problem described. The results show a high consumption of social networks during that time, with significant incidences of addiction. In parallel, the presence of comorbidity has been determined. In this scenario, it would be necessary to implement university educational programs to redirect these addictive behaviors, as well as preventative recommendations and actions to minimize negative impacts. This is a major problem that is growing, exacerbated by the global pandemic produced by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Situations of this gravity call for the development of preventive and educational measures for the responsible and sustainable use of ICT.
... The internet provides for the formation of online gambling subcultures and the identity generation therein. It is relatively easy to find others who share similar gambling interests and values through the internet (Sirola A et al, 2019). ...
Introduction: Social media use has been rapidly increasing over the past few years. Research and practice have mostly focused on the positive impacts of social media, intending to understand and support the various opportunities afforded by this particular technology era. However, it is increasingly observable that social media also involves enormous risks for individuals, communities, firms and even for society as a whole. This systematic review aimed to establish the negative impacts on mental health related to the excessive use of social media.
Methods: As many as 15 articles were generated from Scopus, ScienceDirect and Ebscohost. The reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts in addition to assessing the studies. The study design varied in rigorousness over the quantitative as well as qualitative studies.
Results: The result for this study are that having an average daily screen time (more than 2 hours a day) is positively associated with social media addiction. Avoidant attachment was associated with more problematic social media use.
Conclusion: Avoidant attachment was associated with more problematic social media use. Thus, an abstinence of several days from social media consumption can caused a reduction in perceived stress.
... However, specific PIU reflects the dependency of an individual to a specific function of the Internet such as online gambling or social networking sites. From then on, several researchers started to investigate the factors influencing generalized PIU (e.g., Ha et al., 2006;Hardie and Tee, 2007;Lam et al., 2009;Song et al., 2004) and specific PIU such as IGD (Hussain et al., 2015;Tian et al., 2018;Wichstrom et al., 2019), gambling (Chóliz et al., 2019;Sirola et al., 2019), social media addiction Liu and Ma, 2018;Turel et al., 2018) and cybersex addiction (de Alarcón et al., 2019;Fraumeni-McBride, 2019). ...
While there is a growing number of studies investigating the determinants of social media addiction, there is a lack of research on examining the importance of such predictors and their inter-correlations and inter-dependences from psychotherapists’ and researchers’ point of views. Hence, utilizing the “Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)” technique, the current study investigated the clinical importance of social media addiction from the perspective of researchers and psychotherapists. Accordingly, by reviewing the literature 15 distal predictors of social media addiction were extracted and further classified into three groups of personality factors, comorbid symptoms, and psychosocial factors. From the data collected from 35 respondents, the results highlighted the group of personality factors as the most important dimension increasing the risk for developing social media addiction from the respondents’ perspective. Moreover, the DEMATEL results revealed the predictors of openness to experience (personality dimension), loneliness (psychosocial), and depression (comorbid) as the most important predictors of social media addiction within each group. The results and implications of the study are discussed.
Background: The causes and consequences of youth problem gambling have become an area of increasing research interest. The present study investigated the role of loneliness, negative affective states, mentalization, and alcohol use among adolescent gamblers, exploring the relationships between the study variables utilizing path analysis. Methods: A sample of 352 adolescents aged between 16-19 years were administered the (i) South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents, (ii) Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents, (iii) Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, (iv) Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, and (v) Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test to assess gambling severity, loneliness, negative affectivity, mentalization, and alcohol consumption. It was hypothesized that: (i) female adolescents would be less likely to report gambling-related problems than male adolescents; (ii) loneliness, negative affectivity, deficit in mentalizing, and alcohol misuse would all be associated with gambling severity; and (iii) loneliness, negative affectivity, deficit in mentalizing, and alcohol misuse would all predict gambling severity. A further aim of the study was to explore the relationships between the study variables utilizing path analysis. Results: The regression analysis indicated that male gender, affinity for loneliness, hypomentalizing, and alcohol use significantly predicted adolescent gambling severity. Path analysis showed that stress contributed to gambling severity directly as well as indirectly (via hypomentalizing). Analysis of direct and indirect effects showed that unbalanced mentalizing strengthened the effect of stress on gambling severity. Conclusions: Given that loneliness and stress contribute to adolescent problematic gambling through the mediating role of hypomentalizing, clinical interventions should enhance adolescent gamblers' ability to process mental states in order to contribute to changing the trajectory that leads stressed and lonely adolescents to resort to gambling to improve their psychological wellbeing.
The aim of the present study was to explore which psychosocial predictors are associated with different co-occurrence patterns of three different behavioral addictions (i.e., problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic gambling) among adolescents. A total of 2390 Iranian adolescents – 835 males and 1555 females aged between 13 and 18 years (M = 16.01 years, SD = 1.38) – participated in a cross-sectional online survey. Latent profile analysis produced four latent classes: a ‘non-problematic behavior’ class (N = 1766; 73.89% [Class 1]), a ‘problematic gambling’ class (N = 183; 7.66% [Class 2]), a ‘problematic social media use with gaming disorder’ class (N = 407; 17.03% [Class 3]), and a ‘disordered gambling with problematic social media use’ class (N = 34; 1.42% [Class 4]). Adolescent problem gamblers (Class 2) reported higher social support and lower self-esteem; adolescents with co-occurring problems for social media use and gaming (Class 3) had higher internalizing symptoms, higher sensation seeking and higher social anxiety; and adolescents with co-occurring problems of disordered gambling with problematic social media use (Class 4) had higher internalizing symptoms, lower social support and lower self-esteem. The ‘non-problematic behavior’ class (Class 1) had the lowest levels of internalizing psychopathological symptoms, loneliness, and social anxiety symptoms. Different psychological risk factors in the co-occurrence of problematic gambling, problematic social media use, and problematic gaming among adolescents were found that could help to identify adolescents who are vulnerable to more than one addictive behavior. More specialized prevention as well as treatment programs should be developed for these different types of addictive behavior.
Ante la expansión del juego de azar online los agentes implicados están buscando fórmulas para minimizar el riesgo para los jóvenes, que son especialmente vulnerables. El estudio de caso múltiple, que analiza las plataformas web de seis operadores de apuestas, determina que todas incluyen microsites y aplicaciones de juego responsable, que presentan diferencias significativas en la calidad de la experiencia de juego responsable del segmento joven. La autoregulación de los operadores está mejorando la experiencia de juego responsable online, pero otras de sus estrategias de marketing siguen fomentando un comportamiento de juego de riesgo entre los jóvenes.
Purpose: This study aims to explore whether and how workplace loneliness leads to cyberloafing and the role of leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management in buffering this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on ego depletion theory, we propose that employees’ workplace loneliness leads to cyberloafing via ego depletion, while leader interpersonal emotion management (i.e., leadership behavior targeted at managing employees’ negative emotions) can help to alleviate the situation. To test our predictions, we collected multisource data at three time points from a sample of 219 employee-colleague dyads.
Finding: The results show that workplace loneliness is positively related to cyberloafing and that ego depletion mediates this relationship. Leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management weakens the relationship between workplace loneliness and ego depletion and the indirect relationship between workplace loneliness and cyberloafing via ego depletion such that the above relationships are weak (versus strong) when leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management is high (versus low).
Originality/value: The study results suggest that workplace loneliness is an important hidden danger that leads to cyberloafing because lonely employees suffer more from ego depletion. Leaders’ interpersonal emotion management strategy serves as a potential buffer for such a negative effect.
Purpose of Review
The internet and virtual environments have enabled the formation of online communities around a variety of interests. Online communities focused on gambling are increasingly popular and attract users to interact and share ideas and experiences with likeminded others. This study reviews evidence from the latest research examining the role of online communities in gambling behaviors and gambling problems.
Recent Findings
A systematic literature search resulted in 17 studies. Research shows that online communities are used for diverse reasons like discussing gambling experiences and problems, sharing tips, and celebrating winnings with others. These reasons of online community use can have both adaptive and maladaptive implications. Online gambling communities often grow through social means by inviting friends or social media contacts to join. Active users of online gambling communities are more likely at-risk or problem gamblers.
Summary
Online communities have an increasingly central role in learning about gambling, continuing, and spreading of gambling behaviors. Participation in communities that support harmful gambling habits involves risks for problem gambling.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to ascertain how real options investment perspective could be applied towards monetization of customer futures through the deployment of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)-based persuasive technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors embarked on a theoretical treatise as advocated by scholars (Cornelissen, 2019; Barney, 2018; Cornelissen, 2017; Smithey Fulmer, 2012; Bacharach, 1989; Whetten, 1989; Weick,1989). Towards this end, theoretical argumentative logic was incrementally used to build an integrated perspective on the deployment of learning and AI-based persuasive technologies. This was carried out with strategic real options investment perspective to secure customer futures on m-commerce apps and e-commerce sites.
Findings
M-commerce apps and e-commerce sites have been deploying ML and AI-based tools (referred to as persuasive technologies), to nudge customers for increased and quicker purchase. The primary objective was to increase engagement time of customers (at an individual level), grow the number of customers (at market level) and increase firm revenue (at an organizational level). The deployment of any persuasive technology entailed increased investment (cash outflow) but was also expected to increase the level of revenue and margin (cash inflow). Given the dynamics of market and the emergent nature of persuasive technologies, ascertaining favourable cash flow was challenging. Real options strategy provided a robust theoretical perspective to time the persuasive technology-related investment in stages. This helped managers to be on time with loading customer purchase with increased temporal immediacy. A real options investment space involving six spaces has also been developed in this conceptual work. These were Never Invest, Immediately Investment, Present-day Investment Possibility, Possibly Invest Later, Invest Probably Later and Possibly Never Invest.
Research limitations/implications
The foundations of this study domain encompassed work done by an eclectic mix of scholars like from technology management (Siggelkow and Terwiesch, 2019a; Porter and Heppelmann, 2014), real options (Trigeorgis and Reuer, 2017; Luehrman, 1998a, 1998b), marketing intelligence and planning (Appel et al. , 2020; Thaichon et al. , 2019; Thaichon et al. , 2020; Ye et al. , 2019) and strategy from a demand positioning school of thought (Adner and Zemsky, 2006).
Practical implications
The findings would help managers to comprehend what level of investments need to be done in a staggered manner. The phased way of investing towards the deployment of ML and AI-based persuasive technologies would enable better monetization of customer futures. This would aid marketing managers for increased customer engagement at the individual level, fast monetization of customer futures and increased number of customers and consumption on m-commerce apps and e-commerce sites.
Originality/value
This was one of the first studies to apply real options investment perspective towards the deployment of ML and AI-based persuasive technologies for monetizing customer futures.
Based on lifestyle exposure theory (LET), this study examined online dating application (ODA) use and victimization experiences among adolescents using large cross-national samples of Finnish, American, Spanish, and South Korean young people between ages 15 and 18. According to logistic regression analyses in two substudies, ODA use was associated with more likely victimization to online harassment, online sexual harassment, and other cybercrimes and sexual victimization by adults and peers. According to mediation analyses, this relationship was mainly accounted for by the fact that ODA users engage in more risky activities in online communication and information sharing. Attention should be paid to the risks ODAs pose to vulnerable groups, such as young people, with insufficient skills to regulate their social relationships online.
Please note that the abstract here consists of parts of the executive summary of the report, and that the full executive summary and report should be read to put all findings into context.
The NSW Office of Responsible Gambling (ORG) commissioned this study into gambling and simulated gambling amongst young people aged 12-17 years in NSW. The study aims to increase understanding of gambling engaged in by young people in NSW in order to prevent and reduce gambling-related harm. The research questions (RQs) were:
1. What is the nature and prevalence of gambling amongst young people aged 12 - 17 years old in NSW?
2. What is the nature and prevalence of simulated gambling amongst young people aged 12 - 17 years old in NSW?
3. What are the factors that influence youth gambling attitudes and behaviours?
4. What is the nature and extent of the convergence of gaming and gambling?
Methods
A literature review informed the design of two empirical stages conducted with young people in NSW aged 12-17 years. Subsequently, 16 focus groups with 104 participants were conducted in September 2019 and held in eight diverse locations, including two with Indigenous participants and one each with Chinese and Vietnamese participants.
A survey of young people was then conducted from 28 March to 11 May 2020 (N = 2,220) and administered to three samples. A supplier was contracted to deliver recruitment flyers to most households in NSW but attained less coverage than planned, so the sample (n = 551) may be subject to response bias. To improve its representativeness, results were weighted for age, gender and location based on ABS population projections for 2020. Only results from the weighted letterbox sample were used to address RQ1, RQ2 and RQ4, as this sample was the most representative, although may still be biased due to the low response and the generalisability of the results are unknown. Two additional samples were recruited through a Qualtrics panel (n = 826) and online and email advertising (n = 843). As these were convenience samples, they were not used to address RQ1, RQ2 and RQ4. However, they provided the advantage of relatively large numbers of problem/at-risk gamblers and problematic gamers, so only these two samples were used to conduct the multivariate analyses to address RQ3. The literature review and focus groups also helped to address all RQs.
Key findings
• In the past year, 29.8 per cent of the letterbox sample participated in gambling, and 21 per cent in commercial gambling (excluding private betting).
• The past-year problem gambling rate in the letterbox sample was 1.5 per cent, and 2.2 per cent were at-risk gamblers.
• Letterbox survey respondents reported that their gambling usually occurred with parents/guardians (53.7%), followed by friends aged 17 or less (26.8%), relatives aged 18 years or over (20.7%), relatives under 18 years (20.1%), and grandparents (19.5%). Relatively few young people (9.1%) gambled alone.
• In the past year, 40.1 per cent of the letterbox sample had played games with gambling components (simulated gambling).
• Nearly half (46.1%) of young people reported noticing gambling advertising on television during sports and racing events at least weekly.
Conclusions
A weighted survey found that young people in NSW tend to commence simulated gambling and monetary gambling at much the same age (11-12 years). However, more young people engaged in simulated gambling and purchased loot boxes in the past year than engaged in traditional forms of gambling. All individual forms of simulated gambling were more popular than most forms of gambling, except for private betting. Reflecting a convergence of gambling and gaming, those who participated in simulated gambling were more likely to gamble. Problematic gaming was more prevalent than problem/at-risk gambling. Based on multivariate analyses, problematic gamers were more likely to participate in gambling but were not statistically significantly more likely to be problem/at-risk gamblers. Numerous personal, parental, peer and environmental factors were associated with gambling and gaming participation and problems. Parental factors were particularly influential, with parents being the greatest facilitators of youth gambling. Gambling with parents while growing up, parental approval of the young person’s gambling, growing up with an adult/s with a gambling problem, and not setting rules for online use predicted gambling participation, intentions and problems. Lack of parental rules for online use was also linked to simulated gambling participation and problematic gaming, but lower wellbeing and higher impulsiveness were stronger predictors.
Potential addiction to social media is one of the problems that some people, especially adolescents, are facing. For this reason, many studies have been conducted in this field in recent years. There is no research investigating how empathy is associated with excessive and problematic online social media use, whilst some studies have associated social media use with empathy as the main component of social development. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the influences of Empathic Concern (EC) and Perspective Taking (PT) on social media addiction (SMA). Moreover, prior studies revealed that Internet addiction behavior of individuals varies according to differences in personality traits. Accordingly, we further intend to understand how the impacts of EC and PT on SMA are intensified by considering individuals’ traits differences, and thus, personality traits were included in the research model as the moderators. To assess the research model, the data collected through the distributed printed questionnaire among 592 high-school 15–18 years old students (42.1% male) were analyzed utilizing the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The results revealed that both EC and PT significantly and negatively predict SMA. Furthermore, the moderating analysis showed that Extraversion negatively moderated the relationships between EC and SMA and PT and SMA. Further analysis revealed that while there were no differences across genders, behaviors associated with SMA were more common among students of high-income schools in contrast to low-income schools. Implications of the study are further discussed.
Social networks sites have become the most popular instrument used to communicate and exchange information resulting in the addiction to this media. Previous studies suggested that personal characters play an essential role in addictive behavior and gender difference may be involved. Nevertheless, there are contradictions about the influence of gender. Some studies indicated higher addiction in men. Meanwhile, other researchers pointed out higher addiction among Spanish teenage female. Little studies in the Spanish context have analyzed the different socio-cultural and biological factors possibly related to this addiction and gender differences. With all being said, this study focused on determining the current incidence of social networks addiction in young college students, relating this social networking addiction with loneliness, prenatal testosterone (2D:4D ratio), self-esteem and personal satisfaction. A cross-sectional study focused on female and male college students aged 17–25 years (N = 278) was carried out. It was used several surveys, including the Social Network Addiction Questionnaire (SNA) and the 2D:4D ratio. The results showed difference among male and female about addiction (chi-square = 12.77, p-value = 0.002). Moreover, this addiction was linked with several factors, such as importance given to social networks by females (p-value < 0.001) and males (p-value < 0.001). Also, the findings showed that addiction to social networks might be influenced by gender, showing more importance sociopsychological factors in females and a combination of biological and social factors in the men. Moreover, Instagram has increased as the predominant social network for communication for college students (97.2% men and 93.7% women).
Gambling opportunities have increased rapidly during recent years. Previous research shows that gambling is a popular activity among youth, which may contribute to problem gambling. This study examined how social identification with online and offline peer groups associates with youth problem gambling behavior and if perceived social support buffers this relationship. Data were gathered with an online survey with 1212 American and 1200 Finnish participants between 15 and 25 years of age. Measures included the South Oaks Gambling Screen for problem gambling, and items for peer group identification and perceived social support. It was found that youth who identify strongly with offline peer groups were less likely to engage in problem gambling, while strong identification with online peer groups had the opposite effect. We also found that the associations between social identification and problem gambling behavior were moderated by perceived social support. Online peer groups may be a determinant in youth problem gambling. Focusing on offline peer groups and increasing social support can hold significant potential in youth gambling prevention.
Background: Severe economic difficulties are common among younger generations who currently have an easy access to consumer credit and payday loans in many Western countries. These accessible yet expensive short-term loans may lead to more severe financial difficulties, including default and debt enforcement, both which are defined as debt problems within this study. This study hypothesized that consumer debt and debt problems mediate the relationship between problematic gambling and psychological distress. Excessive gambling can be funded with
consumer debt, which in turn leads to the accumulation of financial stressors and, eventually, psychological distress. Methods: Three studies were conducted to examine the hypotheses. Study 1 used a demographically balanced sample of Finnish participants aged 18 to 25 years (n = 985, 50.76% female). Study 2 used a sample collected from
Finnish discussion forums and social networking sites, with participants ranging from 18 to 29 years of age (n = 205, 54.63% female). Study 3 used a demographically balanced sample of American youths aged 18 to 25 years (n = 883, 50.17% female). Analyses were based on generalized structural equation models examining the role of problem gambling, consumer debt, and debt problems (i.e., default and debt enforcement) on psychological distress. Additional mediation analysis was run with treating both instant loans and debt problems as mediators.
Results: All three studies showed that problem gambling was associated with consumer debt, which was further associated with debt problems. Both consumer debt (studies 1 and 2) and debt problems (study 3) were associated with psychological distress. Problem gambling was also directly associated with psychological distress in studies 1and 3, but not in study 2. In Finland, consumer debt mediated the relationship between problem gambling andpsychological distress (studies 1 and 2), while study 3 underlined the mediating role of debt problems in the USA,
where consumer debt itself was not positively associated with psychological distress. Conclusions: The results of the three studies indicate that problem gambling-related psychological distress is partly
explained by consumer debt. Consumer credit and payday loans may provide resources for gamblers that enable themto keep up with the habit. This may eventually lead to debt problems and psychological distress. Cross-national differences exist, but in both Nordic and American models, similar mechanisms prevail. The results imply that limiting consumer debt among emerging adults could cushion the financial and psychological costs of problem gambling. Keywords: Gambling, Young adults, Psychological distress, Debt, Credit, Default
The Internet provides an accessible context for online gambling and gambling-related online communities, such as discussion forums for gamblers. These communities may be particularly attractive to young gamblers who are active Internet users. The aim of this study was to examine the use of gambling-related online communities and their relevance to excessive gambling among 15–25-year-old Finnish Internet users (N = 1200). Excessive gambling was assessed by using the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Respondents were asked in a survey about their use of various kinds of gambling-related online communities, and sociodemographic and behavioral factors were adjusted. The results of the study revealed that over half (54.33%) of respondents who had visited gambling-related online communities were either at-risk gamblers or probable pathological gamblers. Discussion in these communities was mainly based on sharing gambling tips and experiences, and very few respondents said that they related to gambling problems and recovery. In three different regression models, visiting gambling-related online communities was a significant predictor for excessive gambling (with 95% confidence level) even after adjusting confounding factors. The association of visiting such sites was even stronger among probable pathological gamblers than among at-risk gamblers. Health professionals working with young people should be aware of the role of online communities in terms of development and persistence of excessive gambling. Monitoring the use of online gambling communities as well as utilizing recovery-oriented support both offline and online would be important in preventing further problems. Gambling platforms should also include warnings about excessive gambling and provide links to helpful sources.
Past studies have identified various risk and protective factors for problem gambling (PG). However, no study has examined the interplay between these factors using a combination of person-centered and variable-centered approaches embedded within a longitudinal design. The present study aimed to (a) identify distinct profiles in early adolescence based on a set of risk factors commonly associated with PG (impulsivity, depression, anxiety, drug−alcohol use, aggressiveness, and antisociality), (b) explore the difference in reported gambling problems between these profiles during midadolescence and early adulthood, and (c) identify family- and peer-related variables that could operate as protective or compensatory factors in this context. Two samples were used: (a) a population sample (N = 1,033) living in low socioeconomic-status neighborhoods and (b) a population sample (N = 3,017) representative of students attending Quebec schools. Latent profile analyses were conducted to identify at-risk profiles based on individual risk factors measured at age 12 years. Negative binomial regression models were estimated to compare profiles in terms of their reported gambling problems at ages 16 and 23. Finally, family- and peer-related variables measured at age 14 were included to test their protective or compensatory role with respect to the link between at-risk profiles and gambling problems. Four profiles were identified: well-adjusted, internalizing, externalizing, and comorbid. Compared to the well-adjusted profile, the externalizing and comorbid profiles reported more gambling problems at ages 16 and 23, but the internalizing profile did not differ significantly. Various protective and compensatory factors emerged for each profile at both time points.
The wealth of beneficial tools for online interaction, consumption, and access to others also bring new risks for harmful experiences online. This study examines the association between cybercrime victimization and subjective well-being (SWB) and, based on the buffering effect hypothesis, tests the assumption of the protective function of social belonging in cybercrime victimization. Cross-national data from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland (N = 3,557; Internet users aged 15-30 years; 49.85 percent female) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and main and moderation effect models. Results show that cybercrime victimization has a negative association with SWB after adjusting for a number of confounding factors. This association concerns both general cybercrime victimization and subcategories such as victimization to offensive cybercrime and cyberfraud. In line with the buffering effect hypothesis, social belonging to offline groups was shown to moderate the negative association between SWB and cybercrime victimization. The same effect was not found in the social belonging to online groups. Overall, the study indicates that, analogously to crime victimization in the offline context, cybercrime is a harmful experience whose negative effects mainly concern those users who have weak social ties offline to aid in coping with such stressors.
Background: Studies have shown that problems related to adult gambling have a geographical and social gradient. For instance, adults experiencing gambling-related harms live in areas of greater deprivation; are unemployed, and have lower income. However, little is known about the impact of socioeconomic inequalities on adolescent problem gambling. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the contextual influences of income inequality on at-risk or problem gambling (ARPG) in a large-scale nationally representative sample of Italian adolescents. A secondary aim was to analyze the association between perceived social support (from family, peers, teachers, and classmates) and ARPG. Methods: Data from the 2013–2014 Health Behavior in School-aged Children Survey (HBSC) Study was used for cross-sectional analyses of ARPG. A total of 20,791 15-year-old students completed self-administered questionnaires. Region-level data on income inequality (GINI index) and overall wealth (GDP per capita) were retrieved from the National Institute of Statistics (Istat). The data were analyzed using the multi-level logistic regression analysis, with students at the first level and regions at the second level. Results: The study demonstrated a North–South gradient for the prevalence of ARPG, with higher prevalence of ARPG in the Southern/Islands/Central Regions (e.g., 11% in Sicily) than in Northern Italy (e.g., 2% in Aosta Valley). Students in regions of high-income inequality were significantly more likely than those in regions of low-income inequality to be at-risk or problem gamblers (following adjustment for sex, family structure, family affluence, perceived social support, and regionale wealth). Additionally, perceived social support from parents and teachers were negatively related to ARPG. Conclusions: Income inequality may have a contextual influence on ARPG. More specifically, living in regions of highest income inequality appeared to be a potential factor that increases the likelihood of becoming an at-risk or problem gambler. Findings of the study suggest that wealth distribution within societies affected by economic policies may indirectly have an influence adolescent gambling behaviors.
We examined the relationships between loneliness, interpersonal motives for Internet use, online communication, and friendships on Social Networking Sites (SNS) in emerging adults. Participants were 1st-year university students (N = 149; Mage = 20.33 years; SD = 2.51). Social and romantic (emotional) loneliness were indirectly related to the total number of friends reported on SNSs via social compensation and social networking motives and mechanisms of spending more time in online communication and engaging in more self-disclosure. Romantic loneliness was indirectly related to the number of new friends made on SNSs via social networking motives and online communication. These different relationships show that to understand the mechanisms by which emerging adults make friends online, it is important to consider individual differences in the type of loneliness as well as their motives for going online and their communication while online.
Online social networking sites (SNSs) have gained increasing popularity in the last decade, with individuals engaging in SNSs to connect with others who share similar interests. The perceived need to be online may result in compulsive use of SNSs, which in extreme cases may result in symptoms and consequences traditionally associated with substance-related addictions. In order to present new insights into online social networking and addiction, in this paper, 10 lessons learned concerning online social networking sites and addiction based on the insights derived from recent empirical research will be presented. These are: (i) social networking and social media use are not the same; (ii) social networking is eclectic; (iii) social networking is a way of being; (iv) individuals can become addicted to using social networking sites; (v) Facebook addiction is only one example of SNS addiction; (vi) fear of missing out (FOMO) may be part of SNS addiction; (vii) smartphone addiction may be part of SNS addiction; (viii) nomophobia may be part of SNS addiction; (ix) there are sociodemographic differences in SNS addiction; and (x) there are methodological problems with research to date. These are discussed in turn. Recommendations for research and clinical applications are provided.
Online gambling has gained popularity in the last decade, leading to an important shift in how consumers engage in gambling and in the factors related to problem gambling and prevention. Indebtedness and loneliness have previously been associated with problem gambling. The current study aimed to characterize online gamblers in relation to indebtedness, loneliness, and several in-game social behaviors. The data set was obtained from 584 Internet gamblers recruited online through gambling websites and forums. Of these gamblers, 372 participants completed all study assessments and were included in the analyses. Questionnaires included those on sociodemographics and social variables (indebtedness, loneliness, in-game social behaviors), as well as the Gambling Motives Questionnaire, Gambling Related Cognitions Scale, Internet Addiction Test, Problem Gambling Severity Index, Short Depression–Happiness Scale, and UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Social variables were explored with a latent class model. The clusters obtained were compared for psychological measures and three clusters were found: lonely indebted gamblers (cluster 1: 6.5%), not lonely not indebted gamblers (cluster 2: 75.4%), and not lonely indebted gamblers (cluster 3: 18%). Participants in clusters 1 and 3 (particularly in cluster 1) were at higher risk of problem gambling than were those in cluster 2. The three groups differed on most assessed variables, including the Problem Gambling Severity Index, the Short Depression–Happiness Scale, and the UPPS-P subscales (except the sensation seeking subscore). Results highlight significant between-group differences, suggesting that Internet gamblers are not a homogeneous group. Specific intervention strategies could be implemented for groups at risk.
Over the past few decades, various types of hate material have caused increasing concern. Today, the scope of hate is wider than ever, as easy and often-anonymous access to an enormous amount of online content has opened the Internet up to both use and abuse. By providing possibilities for inexpensive and instantaneous access without ties to geographic location or a user identification system, the Internet has permitted hate groups and individuals espousing hate to transmit their ideas to a worldwide audience.
Online Hate and Harmful Content focuses on the role of potentially harmful online content, particularly among young people. This focus is explored through two approaches: first, the commonality of online hate through cross-national survey statistics. This includes a discussion of the various implications of online hate for young people in terms of, for example, subjective wellbeing, trust, self image and social relationships. Second, the book examines theoretical frameworks from the fields of sociology, social psychology and criminology that are useful for understanding online behaviour and online victimisation. Limitations of past theory are assessed and complemented with a novel theoretical model linking past work to the online environment as it exists today.
An important and timely volume in this ever-changing digital age, this book is suitable for graduates and undergraduates interested in the fields of Internet and new media studies, social psychology and criminology. The analyses and findings of the book are also particularly relevant to practitioners and policymakers working in the areas of Internet regulation, crime prevention, child protection and social work/youth work.
Many scholars have proposed that people who reject one outgroup tend to reject other outgroups. Studies examining a latent factor behind different prejudices (e.g., toward ethnic and sexual minorities) have referred to this as generalized prejudice. Such research has also documented robust relations between latent prejudice factors and basic personality traits. However, targets of generalized prejudice tend to be lower in power and status and thus it remains an open question as to whether generalized prejudice, as traditionally studied, is about devaluing outgroups or devaluing marginalized groups. We present 7 studies, including experiments and national probability samples (N = 9,907 and 4,037) assessing the importance of outgroup devaluation, versus status- or power based devaluations, for understanding the nature of generalized prejudice, and its links to personality. Results show that (a) personality variables do not predict ingroup/outgroup biases in settings where power and status differences are absent, (b) women and overweight people who score high on generalized prejudice devalue their own groups, and (c) personality variables are far more predictive of prejudice toward low-compared with high-status targets. Together, these findings suggest that the personality explanation of prejudice including the generalized prejudice concept is not about ingroups versus outgroups per se, but rather about devaluing marginalized groups.
Objective:
Proeating disorder (pro-ED) communities online encourage harmful weight-loss and weight-control practices. This study examined the association between exposure to pro-ED content online and subjective well-being (SWB) among adolescents and young adults in four countries.
Method:
Cross-national data were collected in the US, Germany, the UK and Finland from Internet users aged 15-30 years (N = 3,557; 50.15% male). The questionnaire assessed SWB, exposure to harm-advocating websites, online activity, prior victimization, and social belonging. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models assessed the relationship between SWB and pro-ED exposure and adjusted for a number of confounding factors.
Results:
Of the participants, 17% had been exposed to pro-ED content (US 20%, Germany 7%, UK 21%, Finland 22%). Exposure to pro-ED content online was negatively associated with SWB in the US, Germany, and Finland, also after adjusting for the confounding factors. Offline social belonging moderated the association between pro-ED and SWB.
Discussion:
Participants who visited pro-ED websites reported lower SWB than others did. The potentially harmful impact of visiting these sites was buffered by the strong offline social belonging. Given the observed similarities across the countries, it is important for families, health professionals, and educators to stay abreast of online communities that have possible contra recovery influences and to be able to discuss such Internet contents in a way that increases treatment motivation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.(Int J Eat Disord 2016).
Previous research has shown that gambling is a popular activity among ado- lescents. Following a rapid expansion of legalized gambling opportunities and the emergence of new forms of gambling, many researchers have carried out studies on adolescent gambling and problem gambling. The present paper reviews studies that have been con- ducted worldwide since 2000, and then presents a more detailed picture of adolescent gambling research in Europe, by providing a country-by country analysis. After an extensive search on academic databases and following an exclusion process, 44 studies were identified. The findings showed that 0.2–12.3 % of youth meet criteria for problem gambling, notwithstanding differences among assessment instruments, cut-offs, and timeframes. However, despite this variability, several demographic characteristics were associated with adolescent gambling involvement and problem gambling. It is concluded that a small but significant minority of adolescents have gambling-related problems. Such findings will hopefully encourage more research into youth gambling to further understand the determinants of this phenomenon.
This review aims to clarify which instruments measuring at-risk and problem gambling (ARPG) among youth are reliable and valid in light of reported estimates of internal consistency, classification accuracy, and psychometric properties. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Medline, and PsycInfo covering the years 2009–2015. In total, 50 original research articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria: target age under 29 years, using an instrument designed for youth, and reporting a reliability estimate. Articles were evaluated with the revised Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Reliability estimates were reported for five ARPG instruments. Most studies (66%) evaluated the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents. The Gambling Addictive Behavior Scale for Adolescents was the only novel instrument. In general, the evaluation of instrument reliability was superficial. Despite its rare use, the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory (CAGI) had a strong theoretical and methodological base. The Gambling Addictive Behavior Scale for Adolescents and the CAGI were the only instruments originally developed for youth. All studies, except the CAGI study, were population based. ARPG instruments for youth have not been rigorously evaluated yet. Further research is needed especially concerning instruments designed for clinical use.
The aim of this study is to examine the mediation role of internet addiction in the relationship between loneliness and depression. 452 university students (241 women, 211 men) ranging in age from 17 to 31 and who are receiving education in different faculties at Firat University in Turkey participated in the study. UCLA Loneliness Scale, Young Internet Addiction Test Short Form, and Indication Scanning List was applied to the participants. The data were analyzed with correlation, regression, hierarchical regression analysis, and Sobel Z test. According to correlation analysis, there are relations in a positive way among loneliness, depression, and internet addiction. In reference to regression analysis, loneliness predicts internet addiction and depression. However, internet addiction also predicts depression as well. As a result of hierarchical regression analysis to determine the mediation role of internet addiction, it was monitored that internet addiction has partial mediation in the relation between loneliness and depression. In addition to that, it was confirmed that this mediation predicts at a significant level with Sobel Z Test. The findings of the study demonstrate a partial mediation role of internet addiction in the relation between loneliness and depression. According to this result, it can be stated that loneliness and internet addiction are risk factors for depression. In terms of studies on depression, the results of this study can be taken into consideration.
Purpose:
To investigate the association between social isolation and loneliness, how they relate to depression, and whether these associations are explained by genetic influences.
Methods:
We used data from the age-18 wave of the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a birth cohort of 1116 same-sex twin pairs born in England and Wales in 1994 and 1995. Participants reported on their levels of social isolation, loneliness and depressive symptoms. We conducted regression analyses to test the differential associations of isolation and loneliness with depression. Using the twin study design, we estimated the proportion of variance in each construct and their covariance that was accounted for by genetic and environmental factors.
Results:
Social isolation and loneliness were moderately correlated (r = 0.39), reflecting the separateness of these constructs, and both were associated with depression. When entered simultaneously in a regression analysis, loneliness was more robustly associated with depression. We observed similar degrees of genetic influence on social isolation (40 %) and loneliness (38 %), and a smaller genetic influence on depressive symptoms (29 %), with the remaining variance accounted for by the non-shared environment. Genetic correlations of 0.65 between isolation and loneliness and 0.63 between loneliness and depression indicated a strong role of genetic influences in the co-occurrence of these phenotypes.
Conclusions:
Socially isolated young adults do not necessarily experience loneliness. However, those who are lonely are often depressed, partly because the same genes influence loneliness and depression. Interventions should not only aim at increasing social connections but also focus on subjective feelings of loneliness.
Background and Aims
DSM-5 provides nine diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder. All criteria have a pre-assumed equal diagnostic impact and are applied to all individuals and groups in an equal manner. The aims of the study are to analyse the structure underlying the diagnosis and to assess whether DSM-5 is equally applicable to different groups of gamblers.
Methods
Data from the 2009 German Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse and from a study on slot machine gamblers were used. Item Response Theory analysis was applied to estimate discrimination and severity parameters of the criteria. With the use of Differential Item Functioning analysis, potential criterion biases were analysed. We analysed data from 107 participants from the general population sample and 376 participants from the slot machine gamblers’ sample who answered a 19-item diagnostic questionnaire based on the DSM criteria for gambling disorder.
Results
A single underlying factor, the severity of gambling disorder, was identified in both samples. In the general population sample the criteria of preoccupation and chasing were least severe and showed low discriminatory power. Bailout, withdrawal and jeopardized matters criteria had highest severity and discriminatory power. The comparison of the two samples revealed two criterion biases in the preoccupation and tolerance criteria.
Conclusions
The structure underlying the criteria is unidimensional but the disorder is manifested differently depending on disorder severity. The assumed equal impact of each criterion lacks support in the findings. The DSM-5 criteria measure a partially different construct in slot machine gamblers than in gamblers in the general population.
Background:
The Internet has facilitated the existence of extreme and pathological communities that share information about ways to complete suicide or to deliberately harm or hurt oneself. This material is user-generated and easily accessible.
Aims:
The present study analyzed the buffering effect of social belonging to a primary group in the situation of pro-suicide site exposure.
Method:
Cross-national data were collected from the US, UK, Germany, and Finland in spring 2013 and 2014 from respondents aged 15-30 years (N = 3,567). Data were analyzed by using linear regression separately for women and men for each country.
Results:
A higher level of belonging to a primary group buffered the negative association of pro-suicide site exposure with mental health, measured as happiness, although the results were not consistent in the subgroups. US male subjects showed a significant buffering effect of the sense of belonging to family while the belonging to friends had a buffering effect among four other subgroups: British female and male subjects and Finnish female and male subjects.
Conclusion:
The results underline the positive potential of primary groups to shield young people's mental health in the situation of pro-suicide site exposure.
Social support protects individuals against adversity throughout the lifespan, and is especially salient during times of intense social change, such as during the transition to adulthood. Focusing on three relationship-specific sources of social support (family, friends, and romantic partners), the current study examined the stress-buffering function of social support against loneliness and whether the association between social support and loneliness with stress held constant would vary by its source. The role of gender in these associations was also considered. The sample consisted of 636 ethnically diverse college youth (age range 18-25; 80 % female). The results suggest that the stress-buffering role of social support against loneliness varies by its source. Only support from friends buffered the association between stress and loneliness. Further, when stress was held constant, the association between social support and loneliness differed by the sources, in that support from friends or romantic partners (but not from family) was negatively associated with loneliness. Regarding gender differences, the adverse impact of lower levels of familial or friends' support on loneliness was greater in females than in males. This research advances our understanding of social support among college-aged youth; implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Background: Pro-anorexia communities exist online and encourage harmful weight loss and weight control practices, often through emotional content that enforces social ties within these communities. User-generated responses to videos that directly oppose pro-anorexia communities have not yet been researched in depth.
Objective: The aim was to study emotional reactions to pro-anorexia and anti-pro-anorexia online content on YouTube using sentiment analysis.
Methods: Using the 50 most popular YouTube pro-anorexia and anti-pro-anorexia user channels as a starting point, we gathered data on users, their videos, and their commentators. A total of 395 anorexia videos and 12,161 comments were analyzed using positive and negative sentiments and ratings submitted by the viewers of the videos. The emotional information was automatically extracted with an automatic sentiment detection tool whose reliability was tested with human coders. Ordinary least squares regression models were used to estimate the strength of sentiments. The models controlled for the number of video views and comments, number of months the video had been on YouTube, duration of the video, uploader’s activity as a video commentator, and uploader’s physical location by country.
Results: The 395 videos had more than 6 million views and comments by almost 8000 users. Anti-pro-anorexia video comments expressed more positive sentiments on a scale of 1 to 5 (adjusted prediction [AP] 2.15, 95% CI 2.11-2.19) than did those of pro-anorexia videos (AP 2.02, 95% CI 1.98-2.06). Anti-pro-anorexia videos also received more likes (AP 181.02, 95% CI 155.19-206.85) than pro-anorexia videos (AP 31.22, 95% CI 31.22-37.81). Negative sentiments and video dislikes were equally distributed in responses to both pro-anorexia and anti-pro-anorexia videos.
Conclusions: Despite pro-anorexia content being widespread on YouTube, videos promoting help for anorexia and opposing the pro-anorexia community were more popular, gaining more positive feedback and comments than pro-anorexia videos. Thus, the anti-pro-anorexia content provided a user-generated counterforce against pro-anorexia content on YouTube. Professionals working with young people should be aware of the social media dynamics and versatility of user-generated eating disorder content online.
Problem gambling rates in older adults have risen dramatically in recent years and require further investigation. Limited available research has suggested that social needs may motivate gambling and hence problem gambling in older adults. Un-partnered older adults may be at greater risk of problem gambling than those with a partner. The current study explored whether loneliness mediated the marital status–problem gambling relationship, and whether gender moderated the mediation model. It was hypothesised that the relationship between being un-partnered and higher levels of loneliness would be stronger for older men than older women. A community sample of Australian men (n = 92) and women (n = 91) gamblers aged from 60 to 90 years (M = 69.75, SD = 7.28) completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Problem Gambling Severity Index. The results supported the moderated mediation model, with loneliness mediating the relationship between marital status and problem gambling for older men but not for older women. It appears that felt loneliness is an important predictor of problem gambling in older adults, and that meeting the social and emotional needs of un-partnered men is important.
Background:
Adolescence and early adulthood are critical periods for the development of mental disorders. Online peer-to-peer communication is popular among young people and may improve mental health by providing social support. Previous systematic reviews have targeted Internet support groups for adults with mental health problems, including depression. However, there have been no systematic reviews examining the effectiveness of online peer-to-peer support in improving the mental health of adolescents and young adults.
Objective:
The aim of this review was to systematically identify available evidence for the effectiveness of online peer-to peer support for young people with mental health problems.
Methods:
The PubMed, PsycInfo, and Cochrane databases were searched using keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms. Retrieved abstracts (n=3934) were double screened and coded. Studies were included if they (1) investigated an online peer-to-peer interaction, (2) the interaction discussed topics related to mental health, (3) the age range of the sample was between 12 to 25 years, and (4) the study evaluated the effectiveness of the peer-to-peer interaction.
Results:
Six studies satisfied the inclusion criteria for the current review. The studies targeted a range of mental health problems including depression and anxiety (n=2), general psychological problems (n=1), eating disorders (n=1), and substance use (tobacco) (n=2). The majority of studies investigated Internet support groups (n=4), and the remaining studies focused on virtual reality chat sessions (n=2). In almost all studies (n=5), the peer support intervention was moderated by health professionals, researchers or consumers. Studies employed a range of study designs including randomized controlled trials (n=3), pre-post studies (n=2) and one randomized trial. Overall, two of the randomized controlled trials were associated with a significant positive outcome in comparison to the control group at post-intervention. In the remaining four studies, peer-to-peer support was not found to be effective.
Conclusions:
This systematic review identified an overall lack of high-quality studies examining online peer-to-peer support for young people. Given that peer support is frequently used as an adjunct to Internet interventions for a variety of mental health conditions, there is an urgent need to determine the effectiveness of peer support alone as an active intervention.
Online groups can become communities, developing group identification and fostering deindividuation. But is this possible for very large, anonymous groups with low barriers to entry, highly constrained formats, and great diversity of content? Applying social identity theory and social identification and deindividuation effects theory, this study assesses influences on group identification and deindividuation in the case of Imgur.com. Respondents reported slightly positive levels of the three forms of group identification, but mixed levels of two forms of deindividuation. As argued by proponents of computer-mediated communication, demographics play only a minor role on these outcomes. More involved usage, such as direct access and commenting on images, is more associated with these outcomes, while more basic usage, such as total hours and reading comments, has little influence. Deindividuation is positively associated with group identification.
Differences in problem gambling rates between males and females suggest that associated risk factors vary by gender. Previous combined analyses of male and female gambling may have obscured these distinctions. This study aimed to develop separate risk factor models for gambling problems for males and for females, and identify gender-based similarities and differences. It analysed data from the largest prevalence study in Victoria Australia (N = 15,000). Analyses determined factors differentiating non-problem from at-risk gamblers separately for women and men, then compared genders using interaction terms. Separate multivariate analyses determined significant results when controlling for all others. Variables included demographics, gambling behaviour, gambling motivations, money management, and mental and physical health. Significant predictors of at-risk status amongst female gamblers included: 18-24 years old, not speaking English at home, living in a group household, unemployed or not in the workforce, gambling on private betting, electronic gaming machines (EGMs), scratch tickets or bingo, and gambling for reasons other than social reasons, to win money or for general entertainment. For males, risk factors included: 18-24 years old, not speaking English at home, low education, living in a group household, unemployed or not in the workforce, gambling on EGMs, table games, races, sports or lotteries, and gambling for reasons other than social reasons, to win money or for general entertainment. High risk groups requiring appropriate interventions comprise young adults, especially males; middle-aged female EGM gamblers; non-English speaking populations; frequent EGM, table games, race and sports gamblers; and gamblers motivated by escape.
In 1978, when the Task Panel report to the U.S. President’s Commission on Mental Health emphasized the importance of improving health care and easing the pain of those suffering from emotional distress syndromes including loneliness, few anticipated that this issue would still need to be addressed 40 years later. In 2011, a meta-analysis on the efficacy of treatments to reduce loneliness identified a need for well-controlled randomized clinical trials focusing on the rehabilitation of maladaptive social cognition. We review assessments of loneliness and build on this meta-analysis to discuss the efficacy of various treatments for loneliness. With th