A variety of studies on empowerment has been conducted, but there has been no overarching framework available for practitioners and researchers hoping to grasp the process and components of empowerment in a comprehensive manner. This study was designed to provide the overarching framework across theories and disciplines for both academics and practitioners in the field of empowerment. A method of theoretical synthesis was employed in this study. Studies were chosen for review in the article based on the two criteria. First, both books and articles were not limited as long as they included theories on the steps toward empowerment and the cognitive element of empowerment. Second, disciplines were not bounded as they provided ideas for the empowerment process and its cognitive elements. It was found that empowerment might be synthesized into five progressive stages and four cognitive elements in both personal and collective empowerment.

The objective of this study was to analyze the demographic, socioeconomic, and habitual causes of juvenile Internet addiction. All do not agree that Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is a new type of addiction, but they agree that the IAD phenomenon has widely spread over recent years. This is also true in Korea. For this study, six schools in Korea were selected to collect data: two from Seoul, two from suburban areas, and two from rural areas. Two hundred and forty copies were collected out of some 700 copies distributed. Multiple regression models were employed to explore significant predictors of IAD. This study showed that at least two out of 100 teenagers in Korea are seriously suffering from IAD and that approximately one out of two is exposed to a kind of IAD. The causes of IAD are not only associated with habitual backgrounds for use of the Internet, but also demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, it can be said that the development of IAD is an interactive process between juveniles' habits of using Internet, and their demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. As IAD progresses, a single type of intervention such as parent interventions or school interventions does not work effectively. Multimodal interventions are required to provide counseling services for individuals suffering from IAD.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on elderly people who have adopted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and participated in ICT-based activities, and explore variables associated with their individual and collective empowerment by using data collected by a questionnaire survey. Design/methodology/approach – A set of 14 questions was developed to measure older adults’ perceived psychological empowerment. A factor analysis was conducted to condense 14 individual variables into several large categories. Finally, a set of multiple regression analyses was employed to identify variables associated with the elderly’s individual and collective empowerment. Findings – Three factors, including a sense of meaning; competence/self-determination; and collective empowerment were extracted from the 14 questions. Multiple regression models revealed that elderly empowerment is not a matter of social skills, ICT skills, or complementary skills, but is more likely to result from their being interested in ICT and ICT-based activities. Learning activities in ICT-based activities and participation frequency were found to be predictors of both meaning and competence/self-determination dimensions. Research limitations/implications – The major finding of this study concerns the development of a measure that assesses three factors of empowerment in older adults, i.e., sense of meaning, competence/self-determination, and collective empowerment. This study represents an initial step in establishing the measure, and therefore, further work is needed to establish its psychometric properties, particularly external validity. Originality/value – This study is one of the first studies to focus on older people’s empowerment construct and its relation to ICT-based activities.

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