Social media addiction (SMA) is one of the most widespread non-medical addictions. Previous research has found positive associations between SMA and depression, anxiety, stress, and other symptoms and signs of mental ill-being. The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the associations with specific manifestations of psychological distress (e.g., impulsivity, narcissism, vulnerability to manipulation, low assertiveness, smartphone addiction and its factors) in groups of Belarusian and Ukrainian university students. The study was conducted using the following diagnostic tools: SMA-15 Questionnaire by V.P. Sheinov A.S. Dziavitsyn; a short version of the SAS-16 questionnaire Smartphone Addiction Scale by V.P. Sheinov; Assessment of the Degree of Vulnerability of an Individual from Manipulative Influences by V.P. Sheinov; Questionnaire for Diagnosing the Potential of Communicative Impulsivity by V.A. Losenkov; and Narcissistic Questionnaire by E. Kot. The sample consisted of 604 university students, including 403 residents of Belarus (77% females) and 201 residents of Ukraine (53% females). The mean age of the participants was 21.5 years (SD = 5.17). The results of the study revealed: (1) positive associations of SMA with impulsivity, smartphone addiction and its factors (‘loss of control,’ ‘fear of rejection’ and user’s ‘euphoria’), common for the Belarusian and Ukrainian students; (2) positive associations of SMA with narcissism for the Belarusian male and female students as well as for the Ukrainian male students; and (3) a negative association of SMA with assertiveness for the Ukrainian male and female students and for the Belarusian female students (for the latter, a negative association with vulnerability to manipulation was also found). In practical terms, the revealed associations between SMA and a number of symptoms and signs of psychological distress provide material for explanatory work with students about the dangers of excessive involvement in social media.
Impulsivity is considered as a personality trait opposite to purposefulness and perseverance; accordingly, a high level of impulsivity is inherent in people with insufficient self-control in communication and activity. Impulsivity as a subject of research is of both theoretical and practical interest; however, methods for diagnosing it are poorly represented in the Russian-language psychological literature. The purpose of the research is to study the factor structure, reliability and validity of the short version of V.A. Losenkov’s impulsivity questionnaire developed by the authors. The first part of the study involved 967 subjects (M = 21.2, SD = 7.7), including 652 women (M = 21.6, SD = 7.8) and 315 men (M = 20.6, SD = 7.4); in the second part, 233 respondents participated, including 126 women (M = 21.4, SD = 7.7) and 107 men (M = 20.8, SD = 7.3). The study was conducted using: (1) the full version of V.A. Losenkov’ impulsivity questionnaire; (2) Barratt’s impulsiveness questionnaire (adapted in Russian by S.N. Enikolopov and T.I. Medvedeva); (3) A.V. Zverkov and E.V. Eidman’s volitional self-control questionnaire; (4) A. Assinger’s aggressiveness questionnaire; and (5) questionnaires on assertiveness, smartphone addiction and social media addiction developed by the authors. The abridged version of V.A. Losenkov’s impulsivity questionnaire (Imp-15) includes 15 tasks that make up a four-factor model of impulsivity obtained through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Compared with the original version of the questionnaire, the abridged version has better psychometric properties. The abridged Imp-15 version satisfies the standard requirements for questionnaires in terms of their reliability, namely: internal consistency, high task distinguishability and retest reliability. The questionnaire also meets key validity criteria in terms of its design, content, “obviousness,” actual and predictive credibility, constructability and convergence. Impulsivity diagnosed by the Imp-15 questionnaire positively correlates with the data of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11), with aggressiveness, smartphone addiction and social media addiction; however, it is negatively associated with self-control and assertiveness. The resulting four-factor model of impulsivity has good reliability indicators and is in full agreement with the obtained data. The authors present the data of psychometric testing and standardization of the abridged Imp-15 questionnaire; the appendix provides the original and abridged versions of the impulsivity questionnaire and the keys to the Imp-15 questionnaire.
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