Are emotional e-competencies a protective factor against habitual digital behaviors (media multitasking, cybergossip, phubbing) in Spanish students of secondary education?

Abstract

Increased Internet use has introduced several behavior patterns into the daily routines of adolescents, such as phubbing, cybergossip, and media multitasking during homework. These habits can potentialize risks, particularly in post-pandemic situations. Socio-emotional competencies can act as protective factors against cybernetic risks; however, they have not yet been studied in relation with habitual digital behavior. To fill that gap, this study's objective is to analyze, across a sample of 776 students of secondary education (12–16 years old), to what extent socio-emotional competencies in digital interaction (“socio-emotional e-competencies”) are related to phubbing, cybergossip, and media multitasking during academic tasks, while being able to predict those behaviors in function of gender and age. We also propose to elicit whether those three behaviors can be regarded as indicators of habitual digital behavior in general. Our structural equation model results indicate that they act as a sole variable, which we denote as “habitual digital behavior”. On the other hand, emotional e-regulation and e-self-control of impulsiveness act as protective factors in adolescence, whereas emotional e-independence is crucial in girls and older students, and emotional e-awareness is important in boys. To close, we discuss the relevance of educating students in the matter of e-socio-economic competencies.