ABSTRACT
This cross-sectional study aimed to explore specific online behaviours and their association with a range of underlying psychological and other behavioural factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight countries (Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Portugal, Japan, Hungary, and Brazil) participated in an international investigation involving 2223 participants (M = 33 years old; SD = 11), 70% of whom were females. Participants were surveyed for specific type of Internet use severity, appearance anxiety, self-compassion, and image and use of performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs). Results were compared cross-culturally. The mean time spent online was 5 h (SD = ±3) of daily browsing during the pandemic. The most commonly performed activities included social networking, streaming, and general surfing. A strong association between these online behaviours and appearance anxiety, self-compassion, and IPEDs use was found after adjustment for possible confounders, with higher scores being associated with specific online activities. Significant cross-cultural differences also emerged in terms of the amount of time spent online during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Adult , Anxiety/epidemiology , Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , PandemicsABSTRACT
With the global COVID-19 pandemic, governments from many countries in the world implemented various restrictions to prevent the SARS-Cov-2 virus's spread, including social distancing measures, quarantine, in-home lockdown, and the closure of services and public spaces. This led to an in-creased use of social media platforms to make people feel more connected, but also to maintain physical activity while self-isolating. Concerns about physical appearance and the desire to keep or reach a muscular and toned ideal body, might have further reinforced the engagement in fitness-related social media activities, like sharing progresses in training achievements or following more fitness contents on popular profiles. To better understand the underlying relation among these factors, the present study investigates 729 responses to the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI), the Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI), the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) and their association to social media usage and compares the results cross-culturally in five countries (Spain, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Japan, and Hungary). Findings highlight significant differences between males and females, espe-cially in regard to the time spent online (U = 477.5, p = 0.036). Greater levels of appearance anxiety were associated with the exposure to fitness-related contents on social media. These results strongly confirm the previously highlighted association between fitspiration media and body image anxiety predominantly in females. Clinical implications and future considerations in terms of prevention and treatment in a situation of global emergency are also discussed.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Social Media , COVID-19/prevention & control , Communicable Disease Control , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Alexithymia is widely recognized as the inability to identify and express emotions. It is a construct which consists of four cognitive traits such as difficulty in identifying feelings, describing feelings to others, externally oriented thinking, and limited imaginative capacity. Several studies have linked alexithymia to cognitive functioning, observing greater alexithymia scores associated with poorer cognitive abilities. Despite Alzheimer's disease (AD) being a neurodegenerative pathology characterized by cognitive troubles from the early stages, associated to behavioral and emotional disturbances, very few investigations have studied the alexithymia in AD. These studies have shown that alexithymia scores-assessed with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)-were greater in AD patients than healthy participants. The objective of the study was to investigate if the alexithymia was present in patients with mild AD. We hypothesized that the AD group would show more alexithymia features than the control group. We evaluated 54 subjects, including 27 patients diagnosed with mild AD and 27 normal healthy controls, using the Shalling Sifneos Psychosomatic Scale (SSPS-R) and a neuropsychological test battery. Using non-parametric statistical analyses-Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests-we observed that the SSPS-R scores were similar in the AD and control groups. All participants showed SSPS-R scores below to 10 points, which means no-alexithymia. We did not find significant correlations between SSPS-R scores and cognitive variables in both groups (p > 0.22), but we observed a negative association between name abilities and alexithymia, but it does not reach to significance (p = 0.07). However, a significant correlation between SSPS-R score and mood state, assessed using Zerssen Rating Scale, was found in both groups (p = 0.01). Because we did not find a significant difference in the alexithymia assessment between both subject groups, pot hoc analyses were computed for each item of the SSPS-R. We made comparisons of alexithymic responses percentages in each SSPS-R item between AD and control groups, using Fisher's test. We observed that AD patients produced more alexithymic responses in some items of SSPS-R test than the control group, particularly about difficulties to find the words to describe feelings, as well as difficulties of imagination capacity and externally oriented thinking. The present results do not confirm our hypothesis and they do not support the results of previous studies revealing great alexithymia in AD.
ABSTRACT
La adicción al juego conlleva situaciones de estrés para quienes sufren este trastorno y su entorno social próximo. 33 familiares voluntarios de jugadores en rehabilitación participaron en una intervención grupal de autoayuda (GAA), tras la cual iniciaron un Programa de reducción de estrés basado en atención plena (REBAP), de ocho semanas. Sus niveles de estrés fueron evaluados antes y después de cada intervención y en tres seguimientos (1, 3 y 6 meses). Mientras que el GAA no reducía significativamente el estrés de los familiares, el protocolo REBAP producía cambios de gran magnitud (η2= 0,88) y conseguía disminuir el estrés, desde niveles inicialmente moderados a bajos. Los efectos se mantuvieron en los tres seguimientos, durante los cuales se observaron niveles elevados de práctica de atención plena. No obstante, en el seguimiento a los 6 meses se apreció una disminución de la práctica, lo cual sugeriría la necesidad de introducir sesiones de refuerzo. Los resultados muestran la utilidad del programa REBAP en la intervención con familiares de personas con adicción al juego
Gambling addiction may lead to stressful situations for the gambler and their proximal social environment. 33 close relatives of disordered gamblers volunteered to attend a self-help group; afterwards, they participated in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program for 8 weeks. The participants' perceived stress was assessed before and after each treatment condition, and at 1-month, 3-months, and 6-months follow-ups. Participating in the self-help group did not significantly reduce the stress levels of pathological gamblers' relatives, whereas the MBSR training produced changes of great magnitude (η2= 0.88), decreasing stress levels from initially moderate scores to low values. Changes in stress levels were maintained at low levels throughout follow-ups, with participants reporting overall strong engagement with the practice of mindfulness. However, a decrease in practice (number of individuals practicing, frequency and time of exercises) was observed at 6-months follow-up, which suggest that including sessions to strengthen practice could be advisable. The MBSR program may be a useful protocol to reduce stress in pathological gamblers' families
