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General and Specific Problematic Internet Use: Diagnosis, Prevention, Intervention and Treatment

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Digital Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2020) | Viewed by 14134

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Education, International University of La Rioja (UNIR), 26001 La Rioja, Spain
Interests: cyberbullying; cyber dating abuse; grooming; sexting; problematic internet use; adolescence; internet risks; prevalence; polyvictimization

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Guest Editor
Department of Psychobiology and Methodology in Behavioral Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: neuropsychology; education; addiction; cognitive neuroscience; psychopathology treatment; clinical assessment; dual diagnosis; HIV; substance abuse; generalized problematic internet use

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Interests: cyberbullying; problematic internet use; online gaming disoder; cumulative risks; health-related quality of life

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of the Internet in our daily life has become a fundamental tool for our day-to-day functioning which is present in all realms of our reality (educational, social, relational, economic, health, play, etc.). This has contributed to a change in our social behavior, especially in Millennials and in the Generation Z. Its use has provided comfort, speed, and immediacy when performing our day-to-day tasks, but also brings a series of risks that can generate clinical and social problems of great importance. These Internet-related issues may have a general approach (problematic Internet use) or can be addressed from the areas of the specific problems related to its use, such as the Internet gaming disorder, nomophobia, the fear of missing out, online gambling disorder, online pornography consumption, etc. Also of interest are those incipient realities that are emerging about problems related to the use of the Internet and technology such as the "ringxiety" or other uses of the smartphone among peers such as "ghosting", among other possible phenomena that currently require further research.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the scientific research of works that pay special attention to determining the internalizing and externalizing variables associated with general and specific problematic Internet use. Particular attention will be paid to prevention and/or intervention programs concerning these realities or to studies that have a global perspective of the risks and that analyze several of them concurrently. Prevalence works on these issues are also welcome, especially in understudied samples, either clinical samples or works in which transcultural analyses are carried out. 

This monograph intends to grant a special role to multidisciplinary work from a biopsychosocial perspective of the causes and consequences of general and specific problematic Internet use at all evolutionary stages (from children to the elderly). Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative studies (cross-sectional, longitudinal, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses) will be welcome. All disciplines are of interest, but especially Psychology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Public Health, and Epidemiology.

Dr. Joaquín Manuel González Cabrera
Dr. Esperanza Vergara-Moragues
Dr. Juan Manuel Machimbarrena
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

  • problematic Internet use
  • nomophobia
  • fear of missing out
  • online gambling
  • Internet risks
  • Internet gaming disorder
  • online pornography consumption
  • addictive behaviors

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2941 KiB  
Article
Effect of the Frustration of Psychological Needs on Addictive Behaviors in Mobile Videogamers—The Mediating Role of Use Expectancies and Time Spent Gaming
by Andrés Chamarro, Ursula Oberst, Ramón Cladellas and Héctor Fuster
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(17), 6429; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176429 - 3 Sep 2020
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8515
Abstract
Casual videogames (CVGs), played on smartphones, are becoming increasingly popular, especially among females and adults. Whereas the addictive potential of online (computer) videogames is well-established, there is yet insufficient evidence for Internet gaming disorder (IGD) in mobile gamers and for the mediating role [...] Read more.
Casual videogames (CVGs), played on smartphones, are becoming increasingly popular, especially among females and adults. Whereas the addictive potential of online (computer) videogames is well-established, there is yet insufficient evidence for Internet gaming disorder (IGD) in mobile gamers and for the mediating role of some mechanisms involved. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the frustration of psychological needs on mobile videogamers’ addictive behavior as well as the role of cognitions (game-use expectancies) and behaviors (time spent playing) through a hypothesized serial mediation model, while controlling for important correlates, such as game genre, age, gender and payment during play. A total of 471 mobile game users (211 males) with an average age of 21.73 replied to an online survey containing sociodemographic and game variables, the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS), the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF) and a slightly modified version of the Internet Use Expectancies Scale (IUES). The results corroborate the negative effects of need frustration on IGD among mobile gamers and clarify the role of time spent playing and game-use expectancies in the development of IGD, highlighting the important role of cognitions in this relationship. We conclude that both the time spent playing and game-use expectancies should be important targets for clinical interventions, even though they are not included in the diagnostic criteria. Full article
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11 pages, 348 KiB  
Article
Personality Traits and Aggression as Explanatory Variables of Cyberbullying in Spanish Preadolescents
by Raquel Escortell, David Aparisi, María Carmen Martínez-Monteagudo and Beatriz Delgado
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(16), 5705; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165705 - 7 Aug 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4871
Abstract
There is a growing interest in preventing cyberbullying in youth. However, multiple questions remain as to the relationship between cyberbullying and psychosocial variables. This study examines the relationship between personality traits, aggression and cyberbullying (victims, bullies, victimized bullies and not involved) in 548 [...] Read more.
There is a growing interest in preventing cyberbullying in youth. However, multiple questions remain as to the relationship between cyberbullying and psychosocial variables. This study examines the relationship between personality traits, aggression and cyberbullying (victims, bullies, victimized bullies and not involved) in 548 Spanish students aged 10 to 13 (50.2% boys). To do so, the Screening of Peer Harassment, the Big Five Questionnaire for Children and the Aggression Questionnaire were used. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the extraversion trait is an explanatory factor for being a victim and openness is a protective factor against being a cyberbully. Agreeableness was found to be a positive predictor of being a cyberbullying victim. Only verbal aggression and anger were included as explanatory factors of being a victim and a victimized bully, respectively. The results are discussed, suggesting their potential implications in the development of preventive programs. Full article
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