-
A person’s use of Web services for escapist purposes is thought to split his or her world into online and real versions, which differ greatly, increasing potential addiction tendencies and eventually leading to harmful consequences for the individual in his or her daily life. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey targeting Tokyo metropolitan high school students (n = 15,191), and used path analysis to clarify the structure of the model wherein psychological distress leads to harmful consequences through Internet escapism and potential Internet addiction tendencies, each serve as intermediary factors mediating the effect of psychological distress on harmful consequences. As a result, we derived the Psychological Distress-Escapism-Addiction-Harmful Consequences (Escapism-Addiction) model. Psychological distress influenced Internet escapism (0.42), Internet escapism influenced potential Internet addiction tendencies (0.61) and potential Internet addiction tendencies influenced harmful consequences (0.71). This made it possible to quantitatively reveal the structure of Internet escapism, whereby escaping psychological distress by engaging in online activities increased tendencies toward potential Internet dependency and had an adverse impact on the concerned individual’s daily life.
With a novel multilingual approach, this cross-cultural meta-analysis study investigated the associations between personality traits and Internet addiction. Articles were identified and retrieved by searching through general and language-specific databases, and thereafter reviewed for inclusion based on the selection criteria. Random effects models with the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method were used to examine the associations of Internet addiction with seven personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, and Lie (OCEAN-PL). Forest plots with summary statistics were produced to inspect the between-study heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis was performed to further determine the contributions of moderators (geographic region, population subgroup, scales for assessing personality traits and Internet addiction, and language of publication) to the observed between-study heterogeneity. Funnel plots and Egger's test were used to detect possible small-study effects. A sample of 34,438 participants from 37 studies (24 from Asia) were included for data analysis. The major languages of publications of the selected articles were English and Asian languages. According to the pooled results, Internet addiction was associated positively with Neuroticism and Psychoticism, but negatively with Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Lie. Geographic region and language of publication significantly moderated the associations of Internet addiction with Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and Openness and Extraversion, respectively. No significant small-study effect was present for all OCEAN-PL personality traits, except Neuroticism. In conclusion, the Internet addiction group is relatively more neurotic and psychotic, and less conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and untruthful than the nonaddiction group. A multilingual approach is useful for improving the search strategies for systematic reviews, cross-cultural meta-analyses in particular.
Abstract Previous research has extensively explored the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. However, much of previous research has not differentiated between the environments where ICT is used, particularly in terms of its perceived usefulness in school versus at home. This gap in understanding the contextual influence of ICT on students’ learning motivation forms the basis for this study. In particular, this research aims to clarify how different environments influence the effectiveness of ICT in motivating students. Using data from 737 high school students, collected through two surveys, and employing Structural Equation Modeling, the study found that ICT usage in schools is positively linked to its perceived usefulness in both school and home environments. Additionally, ICT support from teachers enhances the perceived usefulness of ICT in both contexts. Furthermore, the perceived usefulness of ICT in both school and home environments significantly predicts students’ intentions to use ICT. However, only the perceived usefulness of ICT at home significantly predicts learning motivation, contrary to initial expectations that school-related ICT would also be a significant predictor. These findings suggest that enhancing students’ learning motivation through ICT integration may require more emphasis on the home environment. The implications for educational policy and practice are discussed, emphasizing a more efficient strategy in incorporating ICT into education.
A steep increase in young people’s participation in esports in Japan has demonstrated potential adverse health effects as well as impacts on their well-being. Therefore, protective guidelines are required to address this issue. Hence, a novel measurement tool was used in this study to understand the social and health effects of esports. Using an online survey ( n = 1,612), factor analysis yielded a two-factor structure for the 12-item esportsmanship scale. Analysis of covariance was used to test whether the factors of enjoyable and normative esportsmanship and time spent playing esports were associated with well-being, physical health problems, gaming addiction tendencies, empathy, and self-positivity. Enjoyable esportsmanship was associated with favorable psychological tendencies, such as well-being, empathy, and self-positivity. The findings also suggest that increasing normative esportsmanship may be able to inhibit physical health problems and the degree of gaming addiction. The analysis of covariance demonstrated that more time spent on esports was significantly unfavorably associated with physical health problems, gaming addiction tendencies, and aggressive feelings. Future research should aim to clarify the causal relationship between these psychological tendencies and esportsmanship and conduct a detailed analysis of whether the effects and impacts of esportsmanship differ according to game genre.
