Nomophobia an Emerging Fear: An Experimental Exploration among University Students

Chinese children and adolescents have higher levels of anxiety than those in other countries. However, research that has examined psychological correlates among children and adolescents with a clinical level of anxiety or at risk of developing anxiety disorders in Hong Kong is extremely scarce. Studies on emotion regulation (ER) strategies as a psychological correlate have yielded inconsistent results, suggesting that while maladaptive ER strategies generally contribute to psychopathology, adaptive ER strategies show surprisingly weak or no influence on psychopathology. The present study aims to examine different effects of adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies on anxiety symptoms in two groups of Chinese adolescents with clinical anxiety or at risk of developing anxiety disorders. One hundred and thirty-six adolescents who met the clinical or at-risk levels of anxiety indicated by the Spence Child Anxiety Scale participated in the study, to whom a battery of standardized questionnaires was administered. Multiple-group Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis found only two maladaptive ER strategies, self-blame and rumination, that were significantly associated with anxiety among the clinical group, while only the adaptive ER strategy of reappraisal was associated with anxiety among the at-risk group. When compared to a Western sample of adolescents with internalizing problems, adolescents in our sample reported higher levels of self-blame, other blame and catastrophizing. The findings shed light on how differently maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies function among adolescents with different levels of anxiety. Practical implications for the development of intervention programmes for different levels of adolescent anxiety are discussed.

The purpose of the study: to analyze the parameters of the electroencephalogram in individuals with different levels of anxiety when performing non-verbal tasks.Object and methods. The study was conducted on 20 female students, aged 18 to 22 years. All studies were carried out on a voluntary basis, confirmed in writing, in compliance with bioethical standards governing the conduct of observations on humans. The level of situational anxiety was determined using the Spielberg-Khanin test.The spectral power of the electroencephalogram rhythms was recorded using the NVX 36 digital DC EEG neurovisor using a cap with a set of electrodes that were placed on the head of the subjects according to the international 10–20 system. The EEG recording lasted 1–2 minutes before and during the performance of nonverbal tasks. As non-verbal tasks, the subjects were asked to complete the Portsus maze test and the Cattell intellectual test. The results obtained were statistically processed. Differences were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05. All data obtained are presented as arithmetic means ± standard errors of the mean, as well as changes in average values in %.Research results. It was found that the dynamics of EEG parameters in the performance of nonverbal tasks in students depends on the level of their situational anxiety. In persons with a low level of situational anxiety, when performing nonverbal tasks, an increase in the spectral power of the EEG parameters of beta2 and gamma waves in the frontal, parietal, occipital, and central leads is observed.In subjects with an average level of anxiety in the conditions of performing non-verbal tasks, the EEG parameters of beta2 and gamma waves in the frontal, occipital, and parietal leads noticeably increased. Persons with a high level of anxiety are characterized by an increase in the spectral power of alpha, beta2 and gamma rhythms in the frontal, central, parietal and occipital leads.

Objectives: The prevalence of nomophobia, defined as the fear of disconnecting from the mobile phone connection, has increased with the excessive use of mobile phones. Nomophobia is known to lead to various psychological problems such as low self-esteem, extroverted personality, social phobia, social anxiety and panic disorder, as well as unhealthy eating behaviors. For this reason, it is stated that it is important to raise awareness about the possible harms of excessive smartphone use and to inform all age groups. Methods: This study was conducted on university students between the ages of 18-30, who are smartphone users and whose smartphone usage time is at least 1 hour per day. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the participants using a questionnaire form. “24-hour Dietary Recall” was used to determine the daily nutrients consumption levels of the students; ‘Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q)’ was used to determine nomophobia levels; and ‘Mindful Eating Questionnaire-MEQ’ was used to evaluate eating awareness. Results: The study included 622 participants (48.2% female; mean age: 19.2 ± 2.0 years). Higher nomophobia levels were significantly associated with lower mindful eating scores (p < 0.001), and a negative correlation was observed between the two variables. Additionally, it has been determined that the energy coming from fat in individuals' daily energy intake is above the recommended levels and has an unbalanced distribution. Conclusion: This study revealed that increased nomophobia levels in university students are associated with decreased eating awareness and unbalanced eating patterns. The findings indicate that smartphone addiction may have adverse effects on eating behaviors and that this relationship should be addressed more comprehensively in terms of public health.

This study investigates the effects of psychodrama on adults’ anxiety and subjective well-being levels. A pre/post-test experimental pattern is used with experimental and control groups. The study sample consists of 24 non-thesis master’s program students at Gaziantep University, Human Psychology, and Communication. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Subjective Well-Being Scale were applied as a pre-test to the experimental and control groups. The psychodrama group practice was performed with the experimental group once a week for eleven weeks, 90 minutes per session, while the control group did not receive any practice. After the application, the post-test was administered to both groups. The data were analyzed with SPSS 23 statistical program. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to evaluate the difference between the experimental and control group, and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was applied for the changes within the experimental group. The findings indicate that the individuals’ anxiety level in the experimental group significantly decreased compared to the control group. There was no significant difference between subjective well-being in the experimental and control group for pre-test and post-test applications.

Objective To investigate and analyze anxiety before removal of a third molar, so as to better nursing intervention to relieve anxiety. Methods A total of 120 clinic patients were randomly selected and surveyed by questionnaires, which included 2 parts: one was self-designed questionnaire, the other was State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S). Results Patients who wanted to remove a third molar had different levels of anxiety. The influence factors were: worry about pain after tooth extraction, worry about pain of anesthetic injection, worry about pain during extraction, having had an unpleasant extraction experience and environment layout. Statistical analysis showed that significant influencing factors of anxiety among the subjects were: gender, educational level and collecting relative information on the intemet (P ＜ 0.05 ). No significant difference was found between age groups, current employment status or payment patterns ( P ＞ 0.05 ).Conclusions Anxiety of removal of a third molar is common. Nurses should take targeted measures to relieve anxiety of the patients and thereby to promote the smoothness of operation course. Key words: Third molar; Extraction; Anxiety; Mental state; Influencing factors

Background: It has been recognized for more than 40 years that patients experience different levels of anxiety when faced with impending surgery. The degree to which each patient manifests anxiety is related to many factors. Objective: This study aims to identify the effect of age and previous surgery experience on preoperative anxiety. Methodology: For the purpose of this study a sample of 200 patients who were admitted in 5th April 2009 to the 10th November 2009; in general surgery units of teaching hospitals ( Rezgari & Hawler ) in Erbil city were interviewed to assess their level of anxiety before surgery and identify effect of age and previous surgery on anxiety. The instrument used for this purpose was a questionnaire that included socio-demographic information and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) of Spilberger. STAI is a validated scale which includes 20 items related to measurement of state anxiety. High scores indicate high levels of anxiety. Results: Most of the patients showed moderate to severe anxiety level; (moderate=50% and severe=38.3%) others showed mild anxiety level (11.7%). A statistically significant relationship was seen between age and previous surgery experience before surgery. Young patients with first surgery experience showed higher level of anxiety. Conclusions: According to the results of the study patients undergoing major surgery need to be assessed regarding level of anxiety before surgery. This anxiety should be reduced through appropriate interventions, especially in young patients with no previous surgery experience that have been found to experience high levels of anxiety.

The article presents the results obtained in the course of the study of the actual problem affecting the time aspect of the image-I in preschool children with different levels of anxiety. During the study, the characteristic of the specificity of the time aspect of the image of oneself was given, the main conditions for the development of the time aspect were revealed, the image of the senior preschool children with different levels of anxiety was analyzed. Within the framework of the empirical study, it was possible to confirm the initial hypothesis that the time aspect of the image of oneself in older preschoolers with different levels of anxiety will have significant differences. Comparative analysis of the time aspect of the image-I have studied the contingent demonstrated the presence of emotional color images themselves, pointing to the presence of high (neutral or negative), medium and low (neutral or positive) levels. Statistical processing of data obtained as a result of the experimental part of the study confirms the presence of significant differences in the features of the time aspect of the image-I in the past, present and future in older preschoolers with different levels of anxiety.

The use of smartphones has become increasingly widespread, especially among university students. There is a growing body of research interest related to problematic and excessive use of smartphones. Problematic smartphone usage can cause negative emotions such as intense anxiety and distress when the smartphone cannot be used (e.g., nomophobia), and can lead to negative consequences on mental health. In the present study, two different mediating and moderating effects in which nomophobia was the outcome variable were examined. Firstly, the mediating effect of intolerance of uncertainty was tested in the relationship between differentiation of self and nomophobia. Secondly, the mediating effect of intolerance of uncertainty was tested in the relationship between emotion management skills and nomophobia. Third, the moderating effect of intolerance of uncertainty was tested in the relationship between differentiation of self and nomophobia. Finally, the moderating effect of intolerance of uncertainty was tested in the relationship between emotion management skills and nomophobia. The present study comprised 398 university students (250 females and 148 males). The measures used included the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised, Emotions Management Skills Scale, Nomophobia Questionnaire, and Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale. Findings demonstrated that the mediating of intolerance of uncertainty were statistically significant in the relationships examined, but the moderating effects of intolerance of uncertainty were not. Research results are discussed in the light of the related literature and suggestions are presented for future researchers.

The effect of partial sleep deprivation on cognitive control was studied in 26 students with different levels of trait anxiety. The synchronization–desynchronization reactions of the EEG α-oscillations were evaluated during the Go/NoGo test. In less anxious students, a reduction in sleep time on the night before the study led to a decrease in the desynchronization response to a positive conditioning stimulus (Go) and thus smoothed out the differences with the response to a stimulus that inhibited the behavioral response (NoGo). The smoothing of the α-rhythm responses to stimuli of different signal significance after deprivation indicated deterioration of cognitive control in this group. In students with a high level of anxiety, there were no differences in responses to Go/No Go stimuli either after a night’s sleep of normal duration or after a single sharp reduction of it. They probably had a reduced level of cognitive control, and it did not depend on partial sleep deprivation.

Foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) adversely affects learners’ performance in foreign language classes. The related literature focuses on the relationship between FLCA and learners’ achievement or its potential sources. Considering the possibility of students’ having different levels of FLCA in classes, this study was designed to find out whether teaching English songs could decrease FLCA of the students having different levels of anxiety and whether it could increase foreign language examination performance of these learners. The participants consisted of 161 tenth graders. FLCA scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) was administered as a pre-test at the beginning of the study which determined the participating classes as high anxiety (two classes) and low anxiety (two classes). The students in two experimental classes were taught four songs chosen through their votes in four weeks. The results indicated that teaching students’ favourite English songs in regular English classes decreased students’ FLCA regardless of their anxiety level, though higher anxiety group benefited more. Moreover, the results also showed an increase in students’ foreign language examination performance with the use of song teaching due to decreased FLCA.

This study investigates the relationship between Facebook/Instagram social networks and depression and anxiety of individuals, thus helping the development and evolution of research in this field of psychology. First hypotheses are testing whether there is a difference between the time spent on social networks, Facebook and Instagram between groups of participants with different levels of anxiety and depression. The following hypotheses are testing the existence of a difference in time spent on social media, namely Facebook and Instagram between groups with different levels of trait and state anxiety. The results showed no significant differences in the time spent on social networks, respectively Facebook, between people with different levels of depression. A significant difference was found in the time spent on Instagram between the groups with different levels of depression. No significant differences were found in the use of social media, Facebook and Instagram, between people with state and trait anxiety.

The purpose of research. Nowadays electroencephalography is successfully used for diagnostics and rehabilitation of psychological and cognitive disorders. At the same time, practical healthcare meets with the difficulties related to the weakness in objective assessment of the severity of anxiety states and the requirement to consider the individual characteristics of patients. These features are difficult to formalize, but can be taken into account when implementing machine learning methods. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the possibility of using machine learning technolo- gies to identify the level of anxiety correlated with the Spielberger-Khanin method, according to electroencephalography data. Methods. To identify anxiety in the main and control groups, the Spielberger-Khanin method was used, which allows for differential measurement of anxiety as a personal trait. Alpha rhythms were recorded using 6-channel electroen- cephalography. The CatBoost library, which implements a gradient boosting algorithm with loss function minimization, was used as a machine learning tool. Results. The experiment involved 92 respondents, divided into three groups based on the testing results. Before test- ing, all subjects were in a state of rest for 1.5 minutes with the EEG recording turned on. Then they were asked to take a test to determine personal anxiety with synchronous recording of alpha rhythm parameters. Based on the results of testing, respondents were divided into three groups in accordance with the level of a certain anxiety. The study revealed a relationship between different levels of anxiety according to the Spielberger-Khanin scale and the type of electroen- cephalogram in subjects, which makes it possible to move from testing patients to recording and interpreting EEG. Conclusion. The study revealed a positive relationship between different levels of personal anxiety according to the Spielberger-Khanin scale and the type of electroencephalogram in subjects with an accuracy of up to 14%. It is shown that when determining anxiety, it is possible to replace the test based on the Spielberger-Khanin method for determining anxiety by EEG using machine learning technology.

Routine chemotherapy increased anxiety in cancer patients. Proper treatment is needed to deal with anxiety, one of the intervention is by listening to classical music. Classical music can lower anxiety. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the music Phacelbel Canon In D in decreasing the level of anxiety of patients before undergoing chemotherapy. This study was an experimental study with pre-post experimental designs intact-group comparison with 30 subjects were divided into 2 groups: 15 subjects in the control group and 15 subjects in the experimental group who fit the criteria of research. The anxiety level of the research subjects were measured before and after giving the Phacelbel Canon In D music by using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Data acquisition anxiety levels before and after the intervention of listening to music is calculated using the median, then continued with a statistical test by t-test. Stastical result showed that level of anxiety decreased by 5 points intreatment group , which means that there are differences in anxiety levels before and after application of music therapy. The results of this study also showed that the value of pvalue < α ( α= 0.05) which means that there are different levels of anxiety in the experimental group and the control group. The conclusion from this study is there a significant difference between the group given the music intervention Phacelbel Canon In D work and who are not given the music intervention.

Integration of technology to clinical teaching:The impact of mobile and web-based software automation designed for midwifery students on motivation, time management and anxiety levels

Background and objective: It has been recognized for more than 40 years that patients experience different levels of anxiety when faced with impending surgery. The degree to which each patient manifests anxiety is related to many factors; this study aims to assess the level of anxiety among patients undergoing major general surgery and to identify the effect of gender on preoperative anxiety. Methods: A sample of 300 patients who were admitted from 5th April 2009 to the 10th November 2009; in general surgery units of teaching hospitals ( Rezgari &amp; Hawler ) in Erbil city were interviewed to assess their level of anxiety before surgery. The instrument used for this purpose was a questionnaire that included socio-demographic information and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) of Spilberger. Results: Most of the patients showed moderate to severe anxiety level; (moderate=50% and severe=38.3%) others showed mild anxiety level (11.7%). A statistically significant relationship was seen between preoperative anxiety and gender; female patients showed high levels of anxiety (severe anxiety=46.9%) while male patients showed less severe anxiety level (severe anxiety=28.6%). Conclusion: According to the results of the study patients undergoing major general surgery need to be assessed regarding level of anxiety before surgery. This anxiety should be reduced through appropriate interventions, especially in women who have been found to experience high levels of anxiety.