Group Of Friends Research Articles

Social virtual reality helps to reduce feelings of loneliness and social anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic

Evidence shows that the Covid-19 pandemic caused increased loneliness, anxiety and greater social isolation due to social distancing policies. Virtual reality (VR) provides users with an easy way to become engaged in social activities without leaving the house. This study focused on adults, who were socialising in Altspace VR, a social VR platform, during the Covid-19 pandemic and it explored whether social VR could alleviate feelings of loneliness and social anxiety. A mixed-methods research design was applied. Participants (n = 74), aged 18–75, completed a questionnaire inside the social VR platform to measure levels of loneliness (UCLA 20-item scale) and social anxiety (17-item SPIN scale) in the social VR platform (online condition) and real world (offline condition). Subsequently, a focus group (n = 9) was conducted to gather insights into how and why participants were using the social VR platform. Findings from the questionnaire revealed significantly lower levels of loneliness and social anxiety when in the social VR platform. Lower levels of loneliness and social anxiety were also associated with participants who socialised with a regular group of friends. In addition, findings from the focus group suggested that being part of an online group facilitates stronger feelings of belonging. Social VR can be used as a valuable intervention to reduce feelings of loneliness and social anxiety. Future studies should continue to establish whether social VR can help to encourage group formation and provide people with enhanced social opportunities beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The (un)importance of ethnicity in adolescents’ boundary making: An analysis over a two-school year period in a super-diverse city

Drawing on three rounds of in-depth interviews with Antwerp pupils aged 11–14, we examine how adolescents’ moral boundary making shifts (or not) during the course of a two-school year period, as they talk about whom they like to hang out with (or not), the diversity in their surroundings and in their friendship groups, and the (un)importance of ethnicity in their peer relations. The results show that adolescents initially draw three subtypes of moral boundaries (based on being “good-rebellious”, “stingy-generous” or “decent-indecent”) to emphasize so-called differences between the majority and minority groups; these boundaries, however, reportedly do not structure their friendship groups and even become disconnected from ethnicity in the latter research rounds. Moral boundaries that are set not to distinguish between ethnic majority and minority groups, but against the children of recently arrived immigrants (“established-outsider” boundaries), however, are salient in all three research rounds and are reportedly not crossed in our respondents’ friendship group formation.

A New Flight from Womanhood? The Importance of Working Through Experiences Related to Exposure to Pornographic Content in Girls Affected by Gender Dysphoria

Parallel to the advent of social media and the easy access to online pornographic content there is a sharp increase in adolescent females expressing gender dysphoria worldwide. This paper argues that treatment of gender dysphoria in female adolescents must include explicit exploration into their use and exchange of pornographic content, as well as possible online or offline contacts with adults. Possible avenues of how pornographic content may increase the shame and fear of becoming a woman include the acquisition of misogynistic sexual scripts based on false assumptions on sexuality including the normalization of the violation of females as pleasurable for them, peer influence among female friendship groups, the susceptibility of our medical systems to “mass hysteria” phenomena, easier access of adults with sexually abusive intentions to youth through social media, sexual abuse and victim blaming on females, as well as the influence of pornography on mentalization capacities. As the influence of pornography on gender dysphoria in girls is understudied, this paper provides questions for qualitative and quantitative research, case studies and history taking. Especially the lack of an adequate other during exposure may aggravate false assumptions on gender roles and gender inequality seen in mainstream pornography. Girls affected by autism might be at higher risk because of their reduced mentalization capacities. Working through experiences associated with pornographic content and sexually abusive experiences may correct false beliefs about gender inequality and therefore might alleviate gender dysphoria.

The association between social identity and paranoia through the mediators of trust and hostile attribution bias in a UK general population study

ABSTRACT Background Paranoia is a common experience prevalent in the general population. Social identity refers to our sense of belonging to a social group and has been implicated in the formation and maintenance of paranoia. Research into these mechanisms is still emerging. It was hypothesised that trust and hostile attribution bias would mediate this relationship in a UK general population sample. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 355 UK residents. Measures of family and friendship social identity, trust, hostile attribution bias, paranoia, and psychosis proneness were completed. Results A linear regression found that social identity significantly predicted paranoia, and unexpectedly, this was replicated for psychosis proneness. This was a negative association whereby high social identity scores predicted lower paranoia and psychosis proneness scores. A parallel mediation model indicated family and friendship group identity was associated with lower paranoia and lower psychosis proneness when participants reported higher levels of trust and lower levels of hostile attribution bias. Discussion Social identity is associated with paranoia and psychosis proneness, and these effects are mediated through trust and hostile attribution bias. The findings have implication for targeting research and interventions on social group membership.

Feeling Lonely among the Elderly in Iran: A Systematic Review

Background. Feeling loneliness is a prevalent phenomenon, affecting 25-50% of the population over 65 years old. The present study aimed to investigate feeling lonely in the elderly in Iran. Methods. This review study was conducted by searching the keywords elderly, loneliness, isolation, elderly, old age, older people, and feeling loneliness. We retrieved all published cross-sectional articles in Persian and English languages from 2006 to 2021. Evaluation of the quality of the studies and data extraction was done by reading the full texts of the selected articles, using the STROBE Checklists for cross-sectional studies. Articles that had the required quality were included in the study. Results. In this research, 128 articles were found in the initial review. A total of 26 articles were included in the study after preliminary reviews. According to the studies, the average score of loneliness in the elderly was high. Also, due to the lack of social relations, the average score of loneliness in the elderly staying in nursing homes and far from their families was higher than the elderly living in the family. Conclusion. The average loneliness score among the elderly, especially those living in nursing homes, was relatively high. Creating the necessary conditions to maintain social relationships among the elderly can reduce their level of loneliness and prevent the adverse consequences of loneliness in them. Practical Implications. Considering the importance of improving the mental health of the elderly, it is recommended to strengthen the counseling of the elderly, reduce treatment costs, and also involve the elderly in daily activities and talk with a group of friends to reduce their loneliness. The results of this research can be used to improve the level of awareness of policymakers, people, and families and increase the mental health of the elderly.

The role of bridging programmes in supporting student persistence and prevention of attrition: a UK case study

ABSTRACT Social mobility, and in particular, intergenerational mobility, can be driven by increased opportunities for extended education. Movement beyond a family’s social class will often see positive changes to overall life satisfaction, however, this movement can introduce feelings of alienation. This in turn can lead to detachment either from the social group or, more likely, from the educational provision. As such, institutions are spending time and resources to investigate strategies for retention. This study looks at the impact of foundation year bridging programmes and the potential they have to increase course retention and persistence of students. A retrospective statistical analysis of seven academic years (using chi square) highlighted that completion of a foundation year bridging programme before a traditional undergraduate degree increased the likelihood of persistency and decreased the attrition rate of students from low participation neighbourhoods. These findings, when considered alongside seminal theoretical frameworks such as Spady, Pascarella, and Tinto, confirm the role which family and social background must play in a student’s ability to complete an undergraduate degree. Family and other social support networks are known to play a role in the provision of a supportive environment for students and the undertaking of a bridging programme allows time for the adaptation and development of new friendship groups and increase a family’s familiarity with the pressures of higher education. Higher education providers may, therefore, be able to begin to tackle attrition and improve their course retention through family education and through the encouragement of social integration via bridging programmes.

‘If not now, then never’: Conceptualising the grad trip

The grad trip entails travelling overseas with one’s closest group of friends to commemorate the completion of tertiary and formal education and is bookended by the carefree freedom in one’s youth and the commencement of an adulthood defined by formal employment. This article conceptualises the grad trip as a phenomenon in youth tourism, based on empirical study of how it is experienced in Singapore. Our conceptualisation of the timing and duration that defines a grad trip demonstrates the dominance of time productivity reflective of Singapore’s work culture. Drawing on a precedence of studies based in the Western concept of the gap year, we reveal commonalities in employment society’s influence on time for youth tourism. While the gap year seeks to maximise the length of time offered by a ‘gap’, the grad trip contrarily minimises the culturally perceived wastefulness of a prolonged break.

Religious Education and Adolescent Kindness: A Qualitative Study among Students in Christian Secondary Schools

This article explores religious and spiritual influences that motivate adolescents to show kindness toward their peers who are outside their friend group. Findings from semi-structured interviews with 21 students from eight Christian high schools show the importance of presence, modeling, resources, and education for supporting adolescent prosocial cross-group interaction. These findings are put in conversation with relevant literature, and the article shares practical insights for communities of faith who wish to prioritize, encourage, and support acts of kindness among their teens.

Maestro Martino: designing a historic escape room with primary school children

Educational escape rooms are being used in all school sectors and in many different subjects across the globe. In most documented cases, escape rooms are designed by teachers and played by students. This paper presents the case study of a primary school class that designed and developed an escape room for both adult and young players in connection with a regional event connected to a historical celebration. The project spanned over the whole school year and included a learning phase, the production of support materials (as comics) and eventually the design and development of the escape room, which was finalized by a local association. After its installation in the ancient local prison, the escape room enjoyed the visit of over 600 players, including tourists, families, groups of friends, and school classes, representing a successful example of open school game design project. The paper presents the key phases of the project: requirement analysis, escape room design (including narrative, puzzles, game-flow and props), escape room implementation, and assessment, with a focus on how to manage complex game design with young children.

The influence of critical friendships on secondary student teachers engaged in collaborative action research

ABSTRACT In this study, we explore the following: a) How do secondary student teachers, engaged in collaborative action research, function as critical friends? b) What challenges do they encounter? How do they mitigate these challenges? and c) In what ways did meeting as critical friends influence the student teachers’ learning to conduct collaborative action research? The participants in our study included 38 secondary school student teachers (defined here at grades 9 through 12) in the last year of a two-year Masters program from a large, research-intensive university situated in the West of Ireland. The student teachers were organized into 11 critical friend groups of three to five members focused on conducting collaborative action research on the integration of different approaches to lesson planning. Four university supervisors guided the critical friend groups on the topic of lesson planning and offered three lesson plan templates including a long form, shortened form, and a form created by the student teachers themselves. Data were gathered via group feedback forms, surveys, and action research papers. Data analysis entailed the use of open coding, categorization of recurring codes, and analytic memos. Assertions were generated based on recurring trends in the data. Findings indicated that student teachers as researchers have the capacity to leverage the resources, skills, and knowledge gleaned from their critical friend groups to advance their development as teachers and teacher researchers. Their collaborative relationships help ensure a sense of confidence and respect for one another and for the teaching profession itself.

The group dynamics sparking social change: how group value in diversity predicts interactions with a deviant

Deviants are pivotal to sparking social change but their influence is often hindered by group dynamics that serve to maintain the status quo. This paper examines the influence of a group's value in diversity in deviant's ability to spark social change, with a unique focus on the experience and anticipation of group dynamics that enable minority influence. Hypotheses were tested in three studies (NTotal = 674), which varied in their use of ad-hoc conversation groups or existing friend groups, and whether deviants were newcomers, or existing group members. We demonstrated social influence of a vegan deviant increased to the extent that participants perceived their group to value diversity. Furthermore, group value in diversity related to experienced and anticipated group dynamics that enabled minority influence: decreased conformity pressure, increased attentive listening, and, importantly, an increased search for agreement with the deviant. We discuss the importance of studying group dynamics for understanding what valuing diversity entails.

Mary McCarthy and the Genealogy of Progressive Liberalism

Three decades after graduating from Vassar, in 1963, McCarthy published her bestselling novel The Group – a phenomenal commercial success that brought her fame, wealth, and plenty of scorn from her fellow New York intellectuals. In The Group, she revisits the site of her political and aesthetic awakening, Vassar College, by focusing on the lives of eight – or, at closer counting, nine – Vassar girls, a group of friends from the class of ‘33, who have just graduated, and now are off to put their Vassar-bred ambitions into practice, or not. At first sight, the novel is not concerned with politics. Yet indirectly, it reinterprets and reevaluates the liberalism of the 1930s. And it does so, curiously, by hanging on, in some crucial ways, to the model function of Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy, though what it appropriates from Dos Passos no longer corresponds to the young McCarthy’s enthusiasm of the year 1933.

The Associations Between Sources of Vaccine News and the Intention to Change Adherence to COVID-19 Preventive Health Measures

Background: Although the scientific literature has extensively discussed the impact of the media on people’s health-related behaviors, there is little evidence of the effect of different sources of COVID-19 vaccine news on changing the intention to adhere to health protocols. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the sources of news on the COVID-19 vaccine and the association of each of these sources with the intention of changing adherence to COVID-19 preventive health measures (ICA-COVID-19-PHM). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1000 public population (67.4% female and 32.6% male) of Mazandaran province (age range: 18 to 60 years). The data were collected between January and April 2021 by completing an unidentified online “Google form” questionnaire via social media platforms, such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Soroush, ETA, and Instagram. The two-level linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between the sources of news on the COVID-19 vaccine and the ICA-COVID-19-PHM (social and personal aspects). Results: The most common sources of receiving news were mass media (radio and television with 54%) and virtual networks with 49%. The results showed the ICA-COVID-19-PHM for the news source via virtual workgroups was positive (B=1.36; 95% CI, 0.31%, 2.41%; P=0.01) and for the news sources via virtual networks (B=-0.83; 95% CI, -1.62%, -0.05%; P=0.04) and satellites and foreign news agencies (B=-1.50; 95% CI, -2.64%, -0.36%; P=0.01) was negative. While, the ICA-COVID-19-PHM was not significant (P>0.05) for other sources, such as groups of friends and neighbors, newspapers and magazines, radio and television, and news websites. Conclusion: The management of news sources in epidemics is important because they have associations with adherence to preventive health measures. Policymakers should consider the distribution of vaccine news sources on the ICA-COVID-19-PHM.

Appearance versus reality: A psychoanalytic Jungian reading of Naguib Mahfouz’s Trilogy

This study examines Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy from a psychoanalytic perspective, focusing on the character of every human being as a combination of consciousness and unconsciousness. The study uses Carl Jung’s Theory of Self-individuation to provide a detailed analysis of the novel. The character of Sayid Ahmed, the protagonist, is examined through the Persona archetype and the Shadow archetype. The Persona archetype is examined in relation to Sayid’s relationship with his family and the outer community, while the Shadow archetype is examined in relation to his private life with dancers, prostitutes, and a group of playful friends. The study is drawn to the binary in the protagonist’s character due to his ability to maintain integrity while leading a dissolute life in reality. The study aims to underscore that the character of every human being is a combination of consciousness and unconsciousness, with “Appearance” and “Reality” as inseparable sides.

Recent Extensions of the Gift

Abstract In this essay, Alain Caillé reconstructs the “singular history of the MAUSS (Anti-Utilitarian Movement in the Social Sciences)” from when in early 1980 a group of friends from different disciplines (sociologists, economists, philosophers, etc.) decided to found the “Bulletin du MAUSS” to counter the growing hegemony of utilitarianism and economism in the human sciences and in the philosophical disciplines themselves. The Bulletin would initially become the “Revue du MAUSS trimestrielle” from 1988 to 1992 and from 1993 to 2022 the “Revue du MAUSS semestrielle” until its current anglophone extension “MAUSS International”. The author takes Marcel Mauss’ definition of the gift as a “total social fact” and explains that the gift paradigm is a “translation operator” in the sense that it is continuously enriched in interaction with existing discourses. The theoretical operation that Caillé proposes is to explicate Mauss’s discovery by moving from a simple gift paradigm, based on the perspective of simple reciprocity between giver and recipient, to an expanded gift paradigm. In this way, it can dialogue with other paradigms and other currents of thought (theory of recognition, theory of care, theory of human development, etc.). And from here to a conception of the gift as “adonnement”, i.e. the commitment of human subjects to bring something new and unprecedented into the world.

Are middle schoolers with diverse friends liked, disliked, or unnoticed ‐ and by whom?

AbstractHaving cross‐ethnic friends in early adolescence is associated with more positive intergroup attitudes, but little is known about the social signaling function of the diversity of friends. The current study examined how the ethnic diversity of students’ friends in seventh grade is related to their social status (e.g., acceptance, rejection, and social impact) by eighth grade in multi‐ethnic schools. It is hypothesized that friend diversity is (a) related to higher social status among ethnic out‐group peers as it signals inclusiveness, but (b) related to lower in‐group social status as diversity of friends may threaten the ethnic in‐group. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of ethnically diverse youth (n = 4653) from 26 middle schools, the study capitalizes on outgoing friendship nominations in seventh grade and incoming acceptance and rejection nominations in eighth grade, while controlling for overall social status in grade seven. A novel index was used to calculate the diversity of youth's friend groups, and precise coding was done to retain biracial youth in the analytic sample. Results showed that having diverse friends was related to higher visibility (i.e., social impact) and greater acceptance from ethnic out‐group members. In contrast, adolescents with diverse friend groups were less visible and less accepted by their in‐group. Diversity of friends was not associated with out‐group or in‐group rejection. Findings highlight the importance of understanding how the composition of friend groups may signal intergroup attitudes and in‐group solidarity in ways that have social status trade‐offs among out‐ and in‐group members.

A social semiotic study of public institutional websites focusing on teenage pregnancy in Brazil

Although institutional websites focusing on health matters play an important role in providing information in contemporary society, analysis of the way they use visual communication has received scarce academic attention. This exploratory study seeks to address this neglect through a visual analysis of public institutional websites concerned with the prevention of teenage pregnancy, which, in Brazil, is a serious sociocultural predicament. Drawing on a social semiotic approach to communication, specifically using systemic-functional grammar, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design ( Reading Images, 2021[2006]) and Van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework of visual social actors, the authors analyse the visual and verbal features used to portray the social actors in images from the selected websites. Results show that pregnant teenagers tend to be visually portrayed in isolation, suggesting a sense of powerlessness. Other relevant social actors such as parents and/or family members, fathers of the babies, medical and educational professionals are usually not represented. In addition, pregnant teenagers are portrayed generically, categorizing them, rather than portraying them as individuals. Teenagers who apparently abstain from sexuality, on the other hand, are shown in naturalistic images, smiling at the viewer and in happy closely-knit groups of friends. The texts also foreground the institutions providing the information, through logos and through typography.

Eğitim Kurumlarında İstenmeyen Davranışlar Sergileyen Öğrencilerin Tutum ve Davranış Kalıplarının Genel Özellikleri

A bully is a person who intimidates a person who is considered to be physically or psychologically weak. The victims are people who are being bullied by hooligans.If a bully /victim is someone who bullies from time to time, then they are people who are on the side of being a victim from time to time. Bullying can happen in different ways. For this reason, there are many different classifications in the literature. Bullies are often aggressive and antisocial. Their aggression is directed not only at their victims, but also at their teachers and their families. They are not aware of their aggression, they accept their negative behavior as normal. They do not empathize with their victims, they do not take responsibility for what their victims are going through, on the contrary, they enjoy it and believe that their victims deserve it. In general, he is strong and durable, has good sports and gaming skills. They have high self-confidence, consider themselves smart and have good social skills. They are popular among their friends, they often lead a group of friends, and this group includes people who are trying to be like them. Dec. Victims tend to be more anxious, less self-confident, more timid and silent than their peers. School achievements are not as low as bullies. The ties with the school are not strong. They think they don't understand sports and games. They cannot achieve a certain success in their gaming activities. Their social circles are not wide, they are not popular among their friends, they make difficult friends. Dec. They are usually excluded and left alone. Victims are usually unable to defend themselves against the bully and show avoidance movements by staying away to avoid bullying. Bullies/victims are people who are bullied by those who are stronger than them and bullied by those they consider to be psychologically or physically weak. Victims' families often believe that their children are vulnerable, should stay away from conflicts, and prevent their children's social skills from developing. Domestic violence causes a child to become a bully by learning about aggression and reflecting it on his environment, or vice versa, closing himself in and becoming a victim, causing an increase in the risk of being part of bullying in general. When looking at family relationships, bully/victim children are often children who have been mistreated in the family. Their parents are aggressive and hostile, and they are usually people who try to solve problems by physical violence. Often the father is distant, cold and does not stay at home much, and the mother is the angry side. They are the children of families in which Deconflictions between parents are frequent. Key Words: Educational Institutions, Students, Undesirable Attitudes and Behavioral Patterns

Preexisting social ties among Auschwitz prisoners support Holocaust survival

Survivor testimonies link survival in deadly POW camps, Gulags, and Nazi concentration camps to the formation of close friendships with other prisoners. To provide evidence free of survival bias on the importance of social ties for surviving the Holocaust, we study individual histories of 30 thousand Jewish prisoners who entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on transports from the Theresienstadt ghetto. We ask whether the availability of potential friends among fellow prisoners on a transport influenced the chances of surviving the Holocaust. Relying on multiple proxies of preexisting social networks and varying social-linkage composition of transports, we uncover a significant survival advantage to entering Auschwitz with a larger group of potential friends.

Analysis of Pedestrians’ Road Crossing Behavior, in Social Groups

A significant percentage of pedestrians walk in social groups (friends, families, or acquaintances who walk together). Although patterns generated by social interactions among group members have been shown to affect crowd dynamics, studies on the effect of social interactions at different crossing phases under low pedestrian density are limited. This study aims to comprehensively examine the influence of size and sex composition on pedestrians’ behaviors when walking alone and with friends in different phases before, during, and after the road crossing. For this, experiences were carried out with controlled small groups of friends (varying size and sex composition) at three unsignalized crosswalks with low pedestrian density. The average speed and distance between the young pedestrians in six segments of the trajectories (two in each phase), extracted from video recordings, were analyzed with linear mixed models. Results show that pedestrians reduce their speed when approaching the curb, they accelerate while on the crosswalk, and reduce again when they reach the other side. In all phases, the average speed of the groups was lower than the single pedestrians, and the females’ groups walked slower than the males, except during the crossing, where no sex-related differences were found. On the contrary, before the crossing, the distance increased and decreased from the second segment in the crosswalk. The smallest distance was observed between the female groups and dyads. These findings have relevant implications for research on pedestrian behavior, helping to better understand the complexity of pedestrian dynamics and improve pedestrian safety.