With sluggish economic growth in the post-pandemic era, the phenomenon “neijuan” becomes increasingly severe in many Asian countries like China. Neijuan refers to a hypercompetitive social environment wherein individuals involuntarily get involved in inhumane work or study hours, resulting in a considerable amount of tension and stress. Previous pathology research has shown that stress can trigger the overuse of Internet-based devices and services, which can subsequently lead to problematic smartphone use (PSU) and Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Provided college students are generally deemed one of the groups most susceptible to neijuan, limited attention has been given to the stimuli and the resultant psychological and behavioral ill-beings. Our study examined the impacts of academic stress on Chinese college students' PSU and IGD problems, with the inclusion of escape and coping motives as mediators. Based upon the results of hierarchical regressions and path analysis, we found that whereas academic stress increased IGD tendency mediated through escape and coping motives, excessive use of smartphone might have developed into a habitual behavior rather than effective escape and coping instruments. Demographic and academic characteristics, such as gender and whether studying at a prestigious institution, also exerted influences on college students' IGD intensity.
While previous research into live streaming was predominantly focused on video games, its content creation and provision has tremendously evolved, extending well-beyond game streams. Contents of general interest, such as e-commerce shopping, talent shows, and cute pets, started to prevail in today’s landscape of live streaming. However, limited attention has been given to how distinct types of streaming contents influence viewers’ psychological and behavioral responses. To fill this void, we employed an online survey (n = 583) to empirically examine the associations between popular live stream content types on Douyin (i.e., the TikTok app for China) and their viewers’ psychological and social gratifications and typical support behaviors. The results revealed that gratifications varied drastically across different content types. Game streaming, in particular, generated significant indirect impacts on all the support behaviors under consideration. On the other hand, whereas tension release served as a consistent mediator, the cognitive needs had no significant mediation effects. In sum, our study makes theoretical contributions to the literature by analyzing the thriving live stream phenomenon from a uses and gratifications perspective. We help augment the understanding of new media users’ preferences and choices in an attention economy, wherein human attention is conceptualized as a scarce resource. In practice, a better knowledge of viewer needs can facilitate streamers to customize their content creation and provision so as to accentuate elements of interest and elicit desired support behaviors (i.e., monetization opportunities).
Resulting from an enlarged number of graduating college students and shrinkage of work opportunities, stress in relation to job search and employment is becoming an increasingly noticeable issue in China. Previous psychiatry research has suggested that social support can be conducive to reducing stress from multiple sources, while the effectiveness hinges on whether it is actually recognized and perceived by the recipients. The prevalence of social media has greatly facilitated the communication and exchange of social support information. However, they can also lead to overuse and addiction problems. This study aims to investigate how job search stress affects graduating college students’ social media addiction severity using a serial mediation model and test the potential moderation effect of sense of coherence. Based on a sample of graduating college students (n = 144), our findings point out a significant pathway for the impacts of stress sequentially through seeking of social support and perceived social support. Furthermore, job search stress seems to have pronounced effects on the psychological need for social support only at low- and mid-levels of sense of coherence.
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