Health anxiety related to problematic smartphone use and gaming disorder severity during
            <scp>COVID</scp>
            ‐19: Fear of missing out as a mediator

Elhai, Jon D.; McKay, Dean; Yang, Haibo; Minaya, Charlene; Montag, Christian; Asmundson, Gordon J.G.

doi:10.1002/hbe2.227

Cited by 69 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Anxiety symptoms severity should be positively correlated with the severity of PSU . The association between anxiety symptoms and PSU severity has been previously confirmed by many studies ( 15 , 17 , 27 ). Anxiety could be regarded as one of the individual's predisposing variables of the I-PACE model that can cause PSU ( 20 , 21 ).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Liu

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is a novel manifestation of addictive behaviors. It is frequently reported to be correlated with anxiety symptoms among University students. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been thoroughly studied. Whether the association between anxiety symptoms and PSU is mediated or moderated by self-efficacy remains unclarified. A cluster sampling cross-sectional study was thus conducted to explore the potential mediating or moderating effect of self-efficacy in Chinese University students. Participants (N = 1,113) were recruited from eight Universities in Shenyang, China. Of them, 146 did not effectively respond to the questionnaires. Thus, 967 participants were eligible for the final analysis. The mediating or moderating role of self-efficacy in the anxiety-PSU relationship was explored using hierarchical multiple regression. Then the mediation model was further verified using the SPSS macros program (PROCESS v3.0). Our results showed that anxiety symptoms was positively correlated with PSU (r = 0.302, P < 0.01), while self-efficacy was negatively correlated with anxiety symptoms and PSU (r = −0.271 and −0.181, P < 0.01). Self-efficacy partly mediated the relationship between anxiety symptoms and PSU, which accounted for ~17.5% of the total effect that anxiety symptoms have on PSU. However, the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the anxiety-PSU relationship was insignificant. In summary, our findings suggested that self-efficacy partly mediates but not moderates the link between anxiety symptoms and PSU among Chinese University students. Therefore, multicomponent interventions should be made to restrict the frequency of smartphone usage, enhance the level of self-efficacy, and thus promote the mental health status of University students.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Liu

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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“…For example, COVID-19 increases depression, anxiety, and phobia. These distressing factors may increase the possibility of digital technology overuse or addictive behaviors (Estevez et al, 2020 ; Montag et al, 2019 ; Montag & Elhai, 2020 ; Schivinski et al, 2020 ), especially during the pandemic (Elhai, McKay, et al, 2020 ; Elhai, Yang, et al, 2020 ; McKay & Asmundson, 2020 ; Taylor, Paluszek, et al, 2020 ). Therefore, it is recommended that future studies should validate the scales measuring addictive behaviors such as gaming disorder (Pontes et al, 2019 ; Schivinski et al, 2018 ) possibly resulting from COVID-19 distress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Persian Version of the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (Persian-C19P-S) and the Differences in COVID-19-Related Phobic Reactions in Patients with Anxiety Disorders

Ardestani

Khosravani

Bastan

et al. 2021

Int J Ment Health Addiction

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic outbreak increasing several psychological distress, such as anxiety and phobia, and may affect patients with anxiety disorders. A scale has been recently designed to assess COVID-19-related phobic reactions named the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S). The present study aimed to evaluate factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Persian version of the C19P-S (Persian-C19P-S) in patients with anxiety disorders and to compare COVID-19-related phobia among these patients. Three hundred patients with anxiety disorders completed the Persian-C19P-S and other scales assessing anxiety traits (e.g., the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), the Health Concerns Questionnaire-54 (HCQ-54), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4)) and COVID-19-related distress (e.g., the COVID Stress Scales (CSS) and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19)). The results showed that the Persian-C19P-S replicated the four-factor structure of the original C19P-S. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients evidenced the reliability of the scale. The validity of the scale (convergent and discriminant validity) was confirmed. Patients who had generalized anxiety and panic disorders showed higher phobic reactions related to COVID-19 than those with social anxiety disorder and specific phobia. This study indicates that the Persian version of the C19P-S is a valid scale to be used in Iranian patients with anxiety disorders to evaluate COVID-19-related phobia. Moreover, COVID-19-related phobic reactions are higher in some specific types of anxiety disorders.

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“…Smartphone distraction (SD) may be caused by external triggers, such as notifications, intrusive thoughts, or cognitive salience of smartphone-related content to avoid or regulate emotions ( 26 , 46 – 48 ). Fear of missing out (FOMO: missing out on positive recreational experiences of others) appears to be a main driver for several forms of problematic technology use ( 49 ), including smartphone use ( 50 ) currently exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic and social isolation ( 51 ) and driving attentional bias and distraction from online content to fulfill control needs ( 52 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Dimensions of Smartphone Distraction: Development, Validation, Measurement Invariance, and Latent Mean Differences of the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS)

et al. 2021

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Background: Distraction is a functional emotion regulation strategy utilized to relieve emotional distress. Within the attention economy perspective, distraction is increasingly associated with digital technology use, performance impairments and interference with higher-order cognitive processes. Research on smartphone distraction and its association with problematic smartphone use is still scarce and there is no available psychometric assessment tool to assess this cognitive and emotive process parsimoniously.Method: The present study reports the development and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity, gender invariance, and latent mean differences. The study was conducted in a sample of British university students (N = 1,001; M = 21.10 years, SD = 2.77).Results: The 16-item SDS was best conceptualized in a four-factor model solution comprising attention impulsiveness, online vigilance, emotion regulation, and multitasking. Construct validity was established using relevant psychosocial and mental health measures, with SDS scores being moderately associated with deficient self-regulation and problematic social media use. Gender measurement invariance was achieved at the configural, metric, and scalar levels, and latent mean differences indicated that females had significantly higher means than males across all four SDS latent factors.Discussion: The SDS presents with several strengths, including its theoretical grounding, relatively short length, and sound psychometric properties. The SDS enables the assessment of distraction, which appears to be one of the pathways to problematic smartphone use facilitating overuse and overreliance on smartphones for emotion regulation processes. The assessment of distraction in relation to problematic use in vulnerable populations may facilitate interventions that could encourage metacognition and benefit these groups by allowing sustained productivity in an increasingly disrupted work and social environment.

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Health anxiety related to problematic smartphone use and gaming disorder severity during COVID ‐19: Fear of missing out as a mediator

Cited by 69 publications

References 72 publications

Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

The Persian Version of the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (Persian-C19P-S) and the Differences in COVID-19-Related Phobic Reactions in Patients with Anxiety Disorders

Exploring the Dimensions of Smartphone Distraction: Development, Validation, Measurement Invariance, and Latent Mean Differences of the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS)

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