The growing popularity and frequency of Internet use has resulted in a large number of studies reporting various clinical problems associated with its abuse. The main purpose of this study is to ...conduct a meta-analysis of the association between Internet addiction (IA) and a number of personal and social psychological factors in adolescents.
The search included cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies which analyzed the relationship between IA and at least one of the following personal variables: (i) psychopathology, (ii) personality features and (iii) social difficulties, as well as (iv) self-esteem, (v) social skills and (vi) positive family functioning. These variables were classified as protective and promoting factors of the risk of developing IA.
A total of 28 studies with adequate methodological quality were identified in the primary medical, health and psychological literature databases up to November 2017. Of the 48,090 students included in the analysis, 6548 (13.62%) were identified as excessive Internet users. The results highlight that risk factors had a greater effect on IA than protective factors. Also, personal factors showed a greater link with IA than social factors.
The data provide relevant information for those developing programs for the prevention of IA and the enhancement of protective factors.
•Internet addiction (IA) was associated with psychosocial factors in adolescents.•The risk factors had a greater effect on IA than protective factors.•Personal factors showed a greater association with IA than social factors.•Hostility, depression and anxiety showed the greatest link with IA.
Robbing and bartering is a habitual behavior among free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) at a single site in Bali, Indonesia. The behavior consists of three main elements: (1) a ...macaque takes an item from a human; (2) the macaque maintains possession of the item; then (3) the macaque releases or hands off the item after accepting a food offer from a human. In this paper, we analyze data on individual variation in robbing and bartering among subadult males in relation to dominance rank. Using focal animal sampling we collected 197 observation hours of data on 13 subadult males from two groups (6 from Celagi; 7 from Riting) at the Uluwatu temple site from May 2017 to March 2018, recording 44 exchanges of items for food from 92 total robberies following 176 total attempts. We also measured dominance rank using interaction data from our focal animals. Dominance rank was strongly positively correlated with robbery efficiency in Riting, but not Celagi, meaning that more dominant Riting subadult males exhibited fewer overall robbery attempts per successful robbery. We suggest the observed variation in robbing and bartering practices indicates there are crucial, yet still unexplored, social factors at play for individual robbing and bartering decisions.
With more than three billion people in isolation, the status of digital spaces is switching from an amenity to a necessity, as they become not only the main way to access information and services, ...but also one of the only remaining vectors for economic, educational, and leisure activities as well as for social interactions to take place. However, not all are equals in terms of access to networks or connected devices, or when it comes to the skills required to navigate computerized spaces optimally. Digital inequalities were already existing, yet the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating them dramatically. On the one hand, the crisis will worsen digital inequalities within the population. On the other hand, digital inequalities represent a major risk factor of vulnerability for exposure to the virus itself, and for the non-sanitary consequences of the crisis. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the reciprocal impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and digital inequalities, and to propose operative solutions to help fight the nefarious consequences of the crisis. We first describe how digital inequalities are a determinant of health. We then investigate how COVID-19 can potentiate digital inequalities, and how digital inequalities potentiate vulnerability to COVID-19. Finally, in order to contribute to the mitigation of this crisis, we propose a set of multi-layered strategies focusing on actionability that can be implemented at multiple structural levels, ranging from governmental to corporate and community levels.
•The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing digital inequalities.•Digital inequalities are increasing the vulnerability to the COVID-19 virus and to the consequences of the crisis.•The impact of digital inequalities on COVID-19 vulnerability should be central in the governmental responses.•Actionability-focused mitigation strategies targeting the individuals and the messages are proposed.
In this paper, a novel distributed control strategy addressing a (feasible) psycho-social-physical welfare problem in islanded Direct Current (DC) smart grids is proposed. Firstly, we formulate a ...(convex) optimization problem that allows prosumers to share current with each other, taking into account the technical and physical aspects and constraints of the grid (e.g., stability, safety), as well as psycho-social factors (i.e., prosumers' personal values). Secondly, we design a controller whose (unforced) dynamics represent the continuous time primal-dual dynamics of the considered optimization problem. Thirdly, a passive interconnection between the physical grid and the controller is presented. Global asymptotic convergence of the closed-loop system to the desired steady-state is proved and simulations based on collected data on psycho-social aspects illustrate and confirm the theoretical results.
The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) announces the selection of Roba Abbas of the University of Wollongong, Australia, as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on ...Technology and Society (TTS), beginning May 9, 2023. Professor Katina Michael of Arizona State University, USA, has already started her second accomplished three-year term as TTS EIC. Due to the rising number of submissions and international growth of SSIT publications, the Board of Governors has approved the co-EIC model across its publications. "Our new Co-EIC is internationally recognized, as a leading voice in the socio-technical field, chairing the Socio-Technical Systems Technical Committee at the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology, and bringing a unique skillset to the T&S community at large. Dr. Abbas' interdisciplinary skillset is evidenced in her experience across Business, Informatics, and Engineering Schools and in her time in industry," said Michael.
Objectives: Over the last 10 years there has been a multitude of studies of psychosocial interventions for people with dementia. However, clinical services face a dilemma about which intervention ...should be introduced into clinical practice because of the inconsistency in some of the findings between different studies and the differences in the study qualities and trustworthiness of evidence. There was a need to provide a comprehensive summary of the best evidence to illustrate what works.
Methods: A review of the systematic reviews of psychosocial interventions in dementia published between January 2010 and February 2016 was conducted.
Results: Twenty-two reviews (8 physical, 7 cognitive, 1 physical/cognitive and 6 other psychosocial interventions) with a total of 197 unique studies met the inclusion criteria. Both medium to longer-term multi-component exercise of moderate to high intensity, and, group cognitive stimulation consistently show benefits. There is not sufficient evidence to determine whether psychological or social interventions might improve either mood or behaviour due to the heterogeneity of the studies and interventions included in the reviews.
Conclusion: There is good evidence that multi-component exercise with sufficient intensity improves global physical and cognitive functions and activities of daily living skills. There is also good evidence that group-based cognitive stimulation improves cognitive functions, social interaction and quality of life. This synthesis also highlights the potential importance of group activities to improve social integration for people with dementia. Future research should investigate longer-term specific outcomes, consider the severity and types of dementia, and investigate mechanisms of change.
PDF
