Family Socioeconomic Status and Social Media Addiction in Female College Students: The Mediating Role of Impulsiveness and Inhibitory Control

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that low family socioeconomic status (SES) not only is a social issue, but also is a precursor to addiction to social media and other technologies. The authors investigated the relationship between family SES, stress, impulsiveness and inhibitory control, and social media addiction among Chinese female college students. The findings revealed that in lower-SES families, increased social media addiction was associated with reduced inhibitory control and increased stress and impulsiveness. A structural equation model was used to examine the mediation model hypothesis, and the results confirmed the mediating role of no-planning impulsiveness and inhibitory control between family educational level and social media addiction among Chinese female college students. These findings demonstrate the importance of reducing impulsiveness and improving inhibitory control for preventing social media addiction in female college students of low SES. Future studies are required to confirm precursors to social media addiction, elucidate causal mechanisms, and support the explanatory model of social media addiction.     

The roles of autonomous motivation and self-control lapses in concurrent adherence to a gluten-free diet and a self-chosen weight loss plan in adults with coeliac disease

Objective: Examine the correspondence between autonomous motivation, self-control lapses, and adherence, to a gluten-free diet (GFD) and weight loss plan in adults with coeliac disease; and assess the impact of the interaction of motivation style and self-control lapses on adherence to both diets.

Design: Cross-sectional survey in 519 adults with coeliac disease, 238 of whom were also attempting weight loss.

Main outcome measures: Adherence, motivation style, frequency of temptation and self-control lapses (e.g. when tired, stressed, happy) for GFD and weight loss plan.

Results: Autonomous motivation was higher, and amotivation lower, for the GFD than weight loss; adherence to the two diets was unrelated. Similar circumstances led to temptation and self-control lapses across diets; both were less frequent for the GFD than weight loss. Motivation and self-control lapses explained 21% and 35% of the variance in adherence, respectively; the interaction between motivation and lapse frequency did not explain additional variance for either diet.

Conclusions: There are clear benefits to developing autonomous motivations and strategies to resist temptation for both the GFD and weight loss. Understanding how these processes differ and interact across diets may lead to the design of interventions to improve adherence and weight outcomes in coeliac disease.     

Childhood intelligence predicts premature mortality: Results from a 40-year population-based longitudinal study

Childhood intelligence has been shown to predict mortality risk in adulthood. This relation has never been investigated in a Central European country with universal health care. The present study investigated whether childhood intelligence predicts mortality risk across 40 years in Luxembourg. 2543 participants completed an intelligence test at age 12 in 1968, and the mortality rate in this sample until 2008 was recorded. Our results showed that higher childhood intelligence predicted a lower risk for mortality, even when childhood socioeconomic status was controlled for. This effect was strongest in men belonging to the group of the lowest 20% in intelligence. These results indicate that even universal access to health care cannot fully offset the cumulative effects of intelligence on mortality.     

Rethinking Economic Inequality

Secular discourse about problem of economic inequality rests on two foundational premises that are problematic from a theological point of view. First, individuals enter into society with the aim of bettering their own condition. Second, bettering one's own condition entails accruing more wealth and power so that one can fulfill more of one's desires. In this paper I argue that insofar as these premises shape market behavior, they actively promote excessive economic inequality. Ethical responses to the problem of economic inequality that do not challenge these assumptions are unlikely to effectively promote justice. A theological response to the problem of economic inequality should work to promote cultural change by reminding us that genuine human flourishing depends on communal ties and the higher human goods that material wealth is properly meant to support.     

Tomorrow is the start of the rest of their life — so who cares about health? Exploring constructions of weight-loss motivations and health using story completion

ABSTRACT

In Western societies, health is closely associated with body weight and weight loss, achieved through individual health behaviour. I examined such associations in constructions of weight-loss motivations and health in stories generated using the novel method of story completion. The story stem featured either a female or male protagonist deciding to lose weight; 148 women and 22 men (ages 18–24) provided stories in response. A social constructionist thematic analysis identified five themes: health as clothing size and means to an end; weight-loss activity as good for every woman; tomorrow is going to be the start of the rest of their life; tell me when I’m okay — it’s not about wellbeing; and weight loss as signifier of the “true self.” Considering the adverse social and psychological consequences reflected in the stories and the longstanding elusiveness of successful weight-loss methods, I support calls to review the dominant weight-focused approach to public health.     

Young people’s perceptions of fat counsellors: “How can THAT help me?”

ABSTRACT

Being fat is widely recognised as a stigmatised identity which disproportionately impacts women, both personally and professionally. Women are numerically dominant as therapy practitioners, and we use this group to explore the ways a “fat counsellor” is imagined in the context of counselling. A qualitative story completion task, about a woman starting therapy, was presented to 203 British young people ages 15–24. Participants were 75% female, 88% white, 93% heterosexual, and 98% able-bodied. The story stem did not specify the sex of the counsellor, who was identified as fat; the vast majority of stories assumed the counsellor was female. Overall, fatness was perceived as negatively affecting therapy and the counsellor’s professional credibility because fatness was equated with a lack of psychological health, which rendered fat counsellors professionally “unfit.” This finding extends the literature on “weight bias” in professional settings and has implications for counsellors of all body sizes.