Online Study Research Articles

Heterogeneous trajectories of perceived stress and their associations with active leisure: a longitudinal study during the first year of COVID-19.

There is a plethora of literature on the dynamics of mental health indicators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, yet research is scarce on the potential heterogeneity in the development of perceived stress. Furthermore, there is a paucity of longitudinal research on whether active leisure engagement, which typically is beneficial in reducing stress, might have similar benefits during times of major disruption. Here we aimed to extend previous work by exploring the dynamics of change in stress and coping, and the associations with active leisure engagement over the first year of COVID-19. Data from 439 adults (Mage = 45, SD = 13) in Estonia who participated in a longitudinal online study were analyzed. The participants were assessed at three timepoints: April-May 2020; November-December 2020; and April-May 2021. Mean stress and coping levels were stable over time. However, latent profile analysis identified four distinct trajectories of change in stress and coping, involving resilient, stressed, recovering, and deteriorating trends. Participants belonging to the positively developing stress trajectories reported higher active leisure engagement than those belonging to the negatively developing stress trajectories. These findings highlight the importance of adopting person-centered approaches to understand the diverse experiences of stress, as well as suggest the promotion of active leisure as a potentially beneficial coping resource, in future crises.

Post-play communication of emotions facilitates prosociality and cooperation

Social decisions with monetary consequences are often accompanied with emotional consequences. Previous studies document a robust role of pre-play message communication in facilitating pro-sociality and cooperation. Yet, the effects of communicating emotional experiences in social interactions (particularly post-play) remain understudied. Here, we examine the value of a social environment where emotional expressions are shared post-play in contrast to a private environment where emotion exposure is absent. We develop an experimental design that facilitates emotion exposure and can be readily administered in or outside the laboratory. In this pre-registered online study, participants (N = 196) completed incentivized extensions of the Dictator Game (DG) and the Prisoners' Dilemma Game (PD). Participants learned to classify their emotional experiences on the arousal, valence, and dominance dimensions using non-verbal pictorial representations. Our experiment comprised both a within-subject and a between-subject manipulation: each participant completed a control condition (C, no emotional exposure) as well as an emotion exposure condition (Emotions), but the type of exposure varied between subjects (certain exposure, or Emotions-E, or probabilistic exposure, or Emotions-P). In all conditions, participants complete a one-shot DG and PD. We find that emotion exposure increases other-regarding behavior under both Emotions-E and Emotion-P conditions in the DG and under Emotions-E only in PD. Further, we find that demand for emotion exposure is hardly driven by the outcome of the social interaction (or the actions selected). We also document how empathic concern influence other-regarding behavior and how reports of emotional experiences vary across treatments and with the different outcomes of social interactions. Our results highlight the integral role of emotion exposure in social decision making. Environments that facilitate the communication of emotional experiences increase pro-sociality and encourage cooperation.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms and metamemory across the life span: psychometric properties of the German Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ)

ObjectiveWe assessed the psychometric properties, established normative data for the German Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ), and analyzed its association with neuropsychiatric factors across the life span to provide a validated metamemory assessment for a German-speaking population.MethodsThe three MMQ scales (memory satisfaction, self-rated ability, and strategy application) were translated into German, considering cultural, linguistic, and conceptual aspects. To validate the MMQ and assess associations with neuropsychiatric factors, the Complainer Profile Identification, Geriatric Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Short-Form-Health Survey were applied in an online study in 336 healthy participants with follow-up after 8 months.ResultsPsychometric evaluation of the German MMQ showed normal distribution of all scales and good to excellent validity, internal consistency, and retest reliability. We provide percentiles and normative data for z-score conversion. Importantly, even subclinically elevated scores in depressiveness and anxiety were associated with decreased memory satisfaction and self-rated ability. Furthermore, although the influence of age on the German MMQ scales was minimal, effects of neuropsychiatric factors such as sleep quality, anxiety, and depressiveness on MMQ Satisfaction and Ability varied across the life span.ConclusionsOur study provides a validated German translation of the MMQ with normative data and reliability measures, including reliable change scores. We show the impact of neuropsychiatric factors on the MMQ scales across the life span and emphasize the relevance of a multifactorial approach to metamemory as a measure of individualized everyday functionality and the importance of including neuropsychiatric factors into both research and clinical assessments of metamemory.

Is There a Timeless Truth for Good Arrangement of Paintings in Art Galleries and Museums? An Experimental Investigation of the Barnes Collection

The Barnes Foundation is a traditional art collection and it is one of a kind as for the assorted hanging of the paintings. The sophisticated wall compositions by Albert Barnes were created as a tool for art education, and they have not been altered since 1951. Today, we are interested whether Barnes’ taste withstood the test of time. We asked participants in an online study to create their own hangings on five of the original gallery walls, and also tested whether beholders are able to identify a missing painting from a selection of suitable alternatives. Results show that Barnes’ motifs are reproduced by a significant number of participants and that experts produce more Barnes-like displays than naive participants. We conclude that Albert Barnes based his choices at least to some degree on universally valid visual aspects that are still understood today, especially by people trained in the visual domain.

Influences of Outdoor Experiences During Childhood on Time Spent in Nature as an Adult

IntroductionTime spent in nature provides myriad physical and mental health benefits for both adults and children. Despite these benefits, most people spend too little time in nature to realize the maximal effect. Different types of childhood experiences may have differential influence on adult time in nature. This study assessed the influences of different kinds of childhood outdoor experiences on time spent in nature as an adult. The first aim was to utilize 20 childhood nature experience items to construct summative scales. The second aim was to examine the influence of each scale and other factors on adult time in nature. MethodsA 2-factor scale measuring “wild” and “domesticated” childhood nature experiences was developed using principal and confirmatory factor analyses. An on-line study of 2,109 American adults was conducted. Multiple linear regression examined the influences of the two childhood nature experiences scales, attitude and self-efficacy scales, and sex and age covariates, on adult time spent in nature. ResultsSignificant predictors of adult time in nature were wild childhood nature experiences (β = 0.279, < 0.001), positive attitudes about nature (β = 0.12, p < 0.05), negative attitudes about nature (β = -0.23, p < 0.001) and self-efficacy (β = 0.71, p < 0.001). ConclusionsWild childhood nature experiences (e.g., camping, hiking, and fishing) that include skill-building, that are immersive and engaging, and that involve opportunity for social interaction may translate better into adult nature activities. Programs that introduce and support wild experiences may increase lifelong time spent in nature.

Increasing the appeal of plant-based foods through describing the consumption experience: A data-driven procedure

Global meat consumption is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases emissions and environmental degradation, therefore, shifting diets to plant-based products will help to protect planetary health. However, omnivorous consumers often perceive plant-based products as less tasty and appealing than their meat-based counterparts. Previous research has shown that presenting plant-based dishes in terms of the rewarding aspects of consumption (i.e., with consumption and reward descriptions) can make them more appealing. Here, we report three online studies (using the research platform Prolific) to illustrate and test a systematic, data-driven procedure for generating such consumption and reward descriptions. In Study 1 (N = 653), we asked participants to rate the extent to which various sensory, context, and hedonic features were viewed as positive or negative in relation to 20 savoury dishes. In Study 2 (N = 246), we selected the most positive features from Study 1 and asked participants to rate the fit of these features in relation to 12 novel plant-based dishes. In Study 3 (N = 1,204), we used the features with the highest “fit” scores from Study 2 to examine whether descriptions that incorporated them could increase the appeal and intention to order the same 12 plant-based dishes. As predicted, consumption and reward descriptions led to significantly higher dish appeal and order intentions compared to control descriptions. Consequently, consumption and reward descriptions may help to increase the consumption of plant-based foods, reducing the demand for animal-based products and the associated greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

How Mental Health and Suicidality Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in the General and Psychiatric Population Illustrating Risk and Protective Factors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in psychological distress in the general population, but contrasting results have been shown regarding its impact on psychological symptoms in clinical and non-clinical samples. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to compare in a longitudinal design (September-November 2020 and February-April 2021) the mental health outcomes of a clinical and a control sample and to determine the implications of various risk and protective factors in this regard. A total of 234 participants from the general population and 80 psychiatric patients took part in the present online study using the following measurements: the Brief Symptom Checklist (BSCL); Three-Item Loneliness Scale (TILS); Resilience Scale-13 (RS-13); and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale-Non-Illness (FACIT-Sp Non-Illness). The results show an overall decrease in active suicidal ideation as well as "peace", a subscale of spiritual well-being, as well as increases in passive suicidal activation in the clinical sample, which did not change in the control sample. Psychological symptoms did not significantly change in either group. Significant group effects show an increase in resilience in the clinical sample. Resilience and peace turned out to be protective factors for negative mental health outcomes. However, loneliness, which interestingly increased only in the control sample, was shown to be an overall potential risk factor. Our results highlight the complex implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health outcomes of different groups in the population, demonstrating the necessity of further research, specifically regarding the risk of active and passive suicidal activation. Highlighted protective factors are discussed in regards to spirituality (i.e., peace), which is not strictly related to religion but rather personal spirituality related to the meaning of situations of one's life, as well as in terms of mental health interventions.

Abstract PO5-18-12: Can we cure de novo oligometastatic stage IV HER2+ breast cancer with multimodality therapy? (CHLOE)

Abstract Background: The current standard of care is to treat all patients with metastatic breast cancer with palliative intent, regardless of extent of disease. However, in real world practice patients with oligometastatic disease are sometimes treated with surgery and/or radiation/ablation in combination with systemic therapy to render them as having no evidence of disease. Previous randomized clinical trials have not shown a benefit to adding surgery or radiation in metastatic breast cancer, however, these trials had a small number of HER2+ patients. HER2+ patients are uniquely responsive to combination of chemotherapy and targeted HER2 therapy and therefore may have different outcomes with a multimodality approach. The goal of this project is to use a novel, user friendly, on-line clinical study platform that registers patients and enables follow-up data collection to test the hypothesis that de novo stage IV oligometastatic HER2+ patients treated with multimodality therapy may result in improved long-term distant metastasis free survival and overall survival. Trial design: This is a prospective, nationwide registry study that will enroll newly diagnosed (de novo) oligometastatic (operationally defined by local tumor boards as disease where all metastatic lesions can be ablated) HER2+ breast cancer. A secure online portal has been created by the Yale IT team in accordance with HIPPA and cybersecurity guidelines. Data will be directly entered into the online portal by participating investigators and information regarding what treatment the patient received, if they completed treatment, and survival data will be collected. All treatment decisions will be at the discretion of the treating provider. Eligibility criteria: Patients with de novo oligometastatic HER2+ breast cancer in whom local treatment of all metastatic sites by either surgery, radiation, or ablative techniques is feasible as determined by multidisciplinary discussion or local tumor board. Specific aims: Primary: To estimate the 3 year distant metastasis free survival in patients with de novo oligometastatic HER2+ breast cancer treated with a multi-modality treatment plan. Secondary: To estimate 3 year overall survival and to monitor QOL. Statistical methods: The major analysis will occur after at least 3 years following the last subject’s enrollment in a cohort, to ensure that the objective of distant metastasis free survival at 3 years will be analyzed. It will include: tabulation of all cases entered, number and location of metastases, if treatment plan was implemented, compliance rate of treatment delivery, observed results with respect to the primary endpoint. Kaplan-Meier estimates will be presented for the analysis of survival endpoints together with a summary of associated statistics (median survival time if reached, landmark survival rate estimates and estimates for every 6 months thereafter if applicable), including the corresponding two-sided 95% confidence intervals. The 95% exact Clopper Pearson confidence intervals will be presented for binary endpoints. Paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank test will be used to assess the difference of continuous variables measured at different time points. The secondary clinical outcome is overall survival at 3 years, defined as the percentage of patients without an event at the 3-year follow-up time point measured from the study registration date. An event is considered death from any cause. OS time will be measured from the date of randomization to the date of first OS failure or last follow-up. OS will be estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method with OS failure defined as: death from any cause. Present accrual and target accrual: 4/42 patients Contact information for people with a specific interest in the trial: Mariya.Rozenblit@yale.edu https://chloe.yalepathaws.org Citation Format: Mariya Rozenblit, Nathalie Wiesendanger, Kelly Shanahan, Christine Hodgdon, Peter Gershkovich, Mehra Golshan, Meena Moran, Maryam Lustberg, Lajos Pusztai. Can we cure de novo oligometastatic stage IV HER2+ breast cancer with multimodality therapy? (CHLOE) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO5-18-12.

The role of anthropomorphism and racial homophily of virtual influencers in encouraging low‐ versus high‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors

AbstractVirtual influencers have great potential to shape the audience's perception and motivate behavioral change. Drawing upon anthropomorphism theory and social identity theory, this paper examined the interaction effect of anthropomorphism and racial homophily of virtual influencers in shaping audiences' trust and subsequently pro‐environmental behaviors in low‐ and high‐cost contexts. Two online studies employing experimental materials generated by artificial intelligence were conducted. Study 1 revealed that high anthropomorphism (human‐like virtual influencers) and high racial homophily (local‐like virtual influencers) are more effective for eliciting trust in the context of low‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors. The findings also showed that low racial homophily (foreign‐like virtual influencers) would further weaken the trust level of a virtual influencer in low anthropomorphism (animate‐like virtual influencers). Study 2 aimed to replicate the findings from Study 1 in the context of high‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors. The findings showed that low racial homophily (foreign‐like virtual influencers) enhanced the trust in a high anthropomorphism (human‐like virtual influencers) virtual influencer. The moderated mediation analyses confirmed the hypothesized relationships in the proposed research model. This research advanced our understanding on the moderating role of racial homophily that serves as a cognitive shortcut for low‐cost and quick decisions. However, a low racial homophily (foreign‐like) virtual influencer would be more effective for high‐cost and symbolic pro‐environmental behaviors. These insights provide valuable guidance to businesses, marketers, and environmental advocates aiming to leverage virtual influencers for encouraging sustainability practices.

The impact of perceived work dirtiness on nursing students’ professional commitment: the mediating role of career adaptability and the moderating role of social support - a cross sectional study

BackgroundSocial consensus in the nursing industry is that the job is accompanied by dirtiness. It is generally accepted that negative cognition about a career is an important determinant in reducing nursing students’ professional commitment. However, the impact of nursing students’ perceived work dirtiness on professional commitment and its mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze the association between perceived work dirtiness and professional commitment and to examine the mediating role of career adaptability and the moderating role of social support among nursing students in mainland China.MethodsA cross-sectional online study was conducted among 341 nursing students from three medical universities in Henan, China. The participants’ perceived work dirtiness, career adaptability, professional commitment, and social support were obtained. SPSS 26.0 and Amos 23.0 software were used for the statistical analysis.ResultsPerceived work dirtiness was negatively related to career adaptability and professional commitment (P < 0.001). Career adaptability played a partial mediating role (β= -0.177, P < 0.001) in the relationship between perceived work dirtiness and professional commitment. Social support played a moderating role (β = 0.134, P < 0.01) in the relationship between perceived work dirtiness and career adaptability. Moreover, social support moderates the mediating role of career adaptability.ConclusionsNursing students’ perceived work dirtiness is an important factor in reducing professional commitment. Therefore, nursing educators must enhance courses focusing on professional qualities, providing avenues for nursing students to access social support. This proactive approach aims to mitigate the adverse impact of perceived work dirtiness on professional commitment among nursing students.

Increased screen time and its association to migraine and tension-type headache: a cross-sectional investigation among Bangladeshi students

BackgroundIncreasing prevalence of screens among young people is a notable characteristic of the modern digital era. The study aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors of migraine headache (MH)...

Attitude and Understanding of Artificial Intelligence Among Saudi Medical Students: An Online Cross-Sectional Study [Letter

Attitude and Understanding of Artificial Intelligence Among Saudi Medical Students: An Online Cross-Sectional Study [Letter

Attitude and Understanding of Artificial Intelligence among Saudi Medical Students: An Online Cross-Sectional Study [Response to Letter

Attitude and Understanding of Artificial Intelligence among Saudi Medical Students: An Online Cross-Sectional Study [Response to Letter

Is better readiness the key to deeper learning in distance education? A cross-sectional online study

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has required teachers and students to suddenly transition from face-to-face formats to distance education (DE). The uniqueness of nursing discipline is that it requires both theoretical and skills-based learning. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the influencing factors and effectiveness of DE in nursing education. This exploration can guide teaching practice and provide a basis for the future application of DE in nursing education. AimsTo describe the current distance education readiness and depth of learning among undergraduate nursing students and explore possible influencing factors. To determine the relationship between students’ distance education readiness and the depth of learning. DesignThis is a descriptive and cross-sectional online study. SettingsSchool of Nursing in a traditional Chinese medicine university, Beijing, China. ParticipantsA total of 222 undergraduate nursing students from a traditional Chinese medicine university were recruited. MethodsA questionnaire, which is composed of information form, the Online Learning Readiness Scale, and the Scale of Students Making Deep Learning, was used for data collection. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlations were used in the analysis of the data. ResultUndergraduate nursing students have lower averages in distance education readiness and higher averages in the depth of learning. Significant differences in distance education readiness and depth of learning between different grade groups. A positive correlation was found between distance education readiness and depth of learning (r = 0.894, p < 0.001). ConclusionDistance education is a feasible approach to learning today. Undergraduate nursing students have exhibited poor readiness for distance education but demonstrated deeper learning conditions. Upper grades may lead to better learning outcomes. Better distance education readiness can lead to deeper learning. These conclusions prompt teachers and students to be prepared before participating in distance education to obtain better academic performance.

Prejudice is epistemically unwarranted belief

AbstractIn two preregistered online studies with U.S. adults, we provide evidence of a common psychological profile characterizing belief in prejudicial and non‐prejudicial epistemically unwarranted claims. We solicited self‐report ratings of beliefs in prejudicial and non‐prejudicial pseudoscientific, conspiratorial, and paranormal claims, as well as individual difference measures related to cognitive style, social dominance orientation (SDO), and trust in science. We found moderate to strong positive correlations between endorsing prejudicial and non‐prejudicial unwarranted claims, and robustly replicable associations between endorsement of all the assessed varieties of epistemically unwarranted beliefs, SDO, and perceptions of the credibility of science. Our findings suggest that individuals who endorse epistemically unwarranted beliefs are not only characterized by a rejection of epistemic authority (e.g., science), but also by preferences for a rigid, inequitably stratified society. This suggests that successfully challenging epistemically unwarranted beliefs may benefit by incorporating explicit challenges to social dominance motivations.

Whether and how to regulate: Emotion regulation in negative-feedback situations.

Emotion-regulation goals are often studied in isolation, despite them typically occurring in the presence of alternative goals. Negative feedback situations offer an intriguing context to study the interplay of emotion-regulation goals (wanting to feel better) and performance goals (wanting to perform better). Across five preregistered online studies (N = 1,087), we investigated emotion-regulation choice (i.e., whether and how to regulate) in feedback situations. Challenging the assumption that the goal to perform better is the focal goal in negative-feedback situations, we show that negative feedback increases the salience of the goal to feel better via negative affect in Studies 1-2. Moving beyond the question of whether people regulate their emotions when they receive negative feedback, we examined how they regulate their emotions in Studies 3-5. Focusing on the relative importance of the goals to feel and to perform better, we found that the goal to perform better but not the goal to feel better influences negative-feedback recipients' emotion-regulation strategy choice. A salient goal to perform better was associated with a preference for reappraisal over distraction. These results have critical implications for the emotion-regulation literature and models of feedback processing from an emotion-regulation perspective. They demonstrate that affect-oriented processes such as emotion regulation operate when people receive negative feedback. They also highlight the importance of studying alternative goals given their relevance for how people regulate their emotions. From a practical standpoint, the findings may help us to better understand why people sometimes fail to perform better following negative feedback. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Predictors of Academic Self-Efficacy of University Students: Grades, Learning Disabilities and ADHD

Academic self-efficacy (ASE) is a key concept for academic success as individuals with high ASE are, among other things, ambitious, see problems as challenges, focus on solving tasks, therefore have higher class participation and persevere in difficult tasks. Learning disabilities (LD) and ADHD have been found to be related to academic success, specifically the aspect of taking tests and demonstrating knowledge. Studies of ASE in LD and ADHD students have shown it to be lower in those populations. Most research has focused on ASE as a precursor to academic success. Therefore, we wanted to investigate the opposite, namely how prior academic experiences predict ASE. 287 Croatian students, fifty-three of whom had LD and/or ADHD, participated in the online study. ASE in the learning process and in achieving the desired learning outcomes was lower in the LD/ADHD group. Regression analysis showed that failing an exam, university and middle school grades were significant predictors for both ASE facets, with LD/ADHD diagnosis being a significant predictor only for ASE in achieving the desired learning outcome. Previous negative experiences with testing in the LD/ADHD group and overall relatively recent academic experience have a significant role in students’ ASE. Given the importance of academic self-efficacy, the practical implications of these findings point to the importance of supporting students with LD and ADHD during their education.

Effect of Emotionalizing Sounds on the Estimation and Evaluation of Displayed Safety Distances

Musicological and traffic psychology research shows that emotions can be changed by certain tone combinations or sound characteristics and that emotions, in turn, influence our driving behavior. Nevertheless, there are no studies on how a dynamic active sound design could influence driving behavior via changing the emotional state of drivers in certain driving situations. Based on a previous study, emotionalizing sounds, characterized by their capacity to evoke specific emotional responses in individuals, were created and used to investigate their effect on the perception of safety distances in an online study. To test this, participants made statements on the safety distance shown in videos of cars following scenarios combined with emotionalizing sounds. The results show a significant difference in the estimated safety distance for videos combined with sounds invoking positive emotions like light-heartedness vs. sounds invoking negative emotions like feeling threatened. The odds of the safety distance being evaluated as too small compared with appropriate were two to three times higher for some threatening sounds vs. the positive sounds. The results further suggest that threatening sounds influenced participants’ wishes to increase the depicted safety distances. The results show that emotionalizing sounds had effects on the participants, though not all were statistically significant.

More than the worksite cafeteria: the workplace food environment of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Netherlands.

To characterise the food environment of Dutch small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encompassing physical, sociocultural, economic and policy features and to explore variations within SMEs according to company characteristics (number of employees, location of work and presence of worksite cafeteria). Online cross-sectional survey study of a representative Dutch SME sample by a panel agency. Dutch SMEs. Three hundred and fifteen employees of Dutch SMEs responsible for food and drink in their company. Most SMEs did not have a worksite cafeteria, no provision of fruits or vegetables, and did not offer discounts on food or drinks. The food environment of these SMEs varied significantly based on company characteristics. For example, SMEs with a worksite cafeteria were significantly more likely to have fruits (OR = 8·76, 95 % CI (4·50, 17·06)), vegetables (OR = 10·29, 95 % CI (5·49, 19·31)) and company food policies (OR = 5·04, 95 % CI (2·08, 12·20)) than SMEs without. Additionally, SMEs with ≥ 50 employees were more likely to have fruits (OR = 2·39, 95 % CI (1·42, 4·03)), vegetables (OR = 1·89, 95 % CI (1·04, 3·46)) and company food policies (OR = 2·82, 95 % CI (1·09, 7·29) than SMEs with < 50 employees. Moreover, having a worksite cafeteria (B = 0·23, 95 % CI (0·08, 0·38)) and employees working mostly on-site (B = 0·14, 95 % CI (0·01, 0·28)) were associated with stronger social norms of healthy and sustainable eating at work compared to SMEs without a worksite cafeteria and working mostly off-site. In SMEs, an overall comprehensive picture of the food environment points to its limited active encouragement of healthy food choices, particularly so in small SMEs without a worksite cafeteria. Company characteristics strongly influence SME food environments and should be considered when developing interventions improving SME workplace food environments.

Students’ Loneliness

The aim of this study was to investigate whether support in the offline world and some aspects of social network use predict loneliness in students. A cross-sectional online study was conducted in March 2023 on a sample of 211 (80.6% female) students aged 18 to 26. Participants provided information on the social support they receive in the offline world (tangible support, evaluative support, self-esteem support, and belonging support), some aspects of their social network use (intensity of use, number of friends, and number of likes and comments), and loneliness. The data was analysed using a hierarchical regression analysis. As expected, the analysis showed that stronger appraisal, stronger self-esteem, and stronger belonging support in offline life were associated with lower loneliness in students. Surprisingly, none of the measured aspects of social network use significantly predicted students’ loneliness. These results provide valuable insight into understanding loneliness in the context of offline and online social relationships.