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Risk and Protective Factors of Mental Health during Pandemics: The Role of Positive Psychology, Digital Technologies, and Social Networks

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2023) | Viewed by 23125

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Sen-Chi Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Counseling and Applied Psychology, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung City 40306, Taiwan
Interests: social network sites; positive psychology; well-being; psychometrics; emotion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the scientific community works to develop effective treatment of and protection against COVID-19, psychologists are investigating the risk and protect factors of mental health during pandemics to build mental immunity against the increased psychological problems emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concerning the risk and protect factors, positive psychology, social networks, and digital technologies play important roles. Positive psychology buffers against anxiety, bolsters mental health, and may have helped to strengthen mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the applications of positive psychology, positive psychological interventions (PPIs) involve a tele-mental-health approach that is suitable for individuals under quarantine or limited social interactions with social distancing. PIs are flexible, low-cost, and efficient options that alleviate the negative emotional effects of the pandemic on individuals. Individuals can practice PPIs at home on their own without a therapist. Moreover, digital technologies, such as the Internet, mobile phone apps, and virtual reality (VR), are powerful tools for conducting PIs.

Due to anxiety from being bombarded by information from the news and social media, people may constantly read or repost information about COVID-19 on social media, and the spreading news, regardless of fake or real, may influence their well-being. The influence of social media on mental health increased during the pandemic and deserves further research attention.

Prof. Dr. Sen-Chi Yu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • positive psychology
  • social media
  • well-being

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 346 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Social Media and the Increase in Mental Health Problems
by Hasan Beyari
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2383; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032383 - 29 Jan 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 21320
Abstract
Social media has become an indispensable aspect of young people’s digital interactions, as they use it mostly for entertainment and communication purposes. Consequently, it has the potential to have both positive and negative effects on them. Deterioration in mental health is one of [...] Read more.
Social media has become an indispensable aspect of young people’s digital interactions, as they use it mostly for entertainment and communication purposes. Consequently, it has the potential to have both positive and negative effects on them. Deterioration in mental health is one of the side effects stemming from social media overuse. This study investigates the relationship between social media and the increase in mental health problems in Saudi Arabia. The population considered for analysis includes young people from Saudi Arabia, with a sample size of 385. A closed-ended survey questionnaire was used to collect data on different social media features and criteria. Using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), the researcher analyzed data to compare the effect of different social media features on mental health. The social media features included in this paper are private chats and calls, group chats and calls, browsing posts, games, media sharing, adverts, likes/comments/followers, and pages. The researcher adopted entertainment, information, social interaction, privacy, esteem, and communication as the criteria in the AHP process. Among these criteria, the study found that entertainment was the most significant, while privacy was the least significant. Findings suggested that likes, comments, and followers were the biggest contributors to poor mental health (total utility = 56.24). The least effective feature was ‘games’ (total utility = 2.56). The researcher recommends that social media users be cautious when interacting with social media features, especially likes, comments, followers, media, and posts, because of their significant effect on mental health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk and Protective Factors of Mental Health during Pandemics: The Role of Positive Psychology, Digital Technologies, and Social Networks)
10 pages, 997 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Positive Intervention Dosing Frequency: Fixed Intervals May Decrease More Depression than Flexible Ones
by Sen-Chi Yu and Chun-Wei Chang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 9227; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159227 - 28 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1274
Abstract
Positive interventions (PIs) that are based on the theory of positive psychology have proven to be effective in improving well-being and alleviating depression. However, little research has explored the effect of dosing intervals on experimental effects. As such, this study designed strength-based PIs [...] Read more.
Positive interventions (PIs) that are based on the theory of positive psychology have proven to be effective in improving well-being and alleviating depression. However, little research has explored the effect of dosing intervals on experimental effects. As such, this study designed strength-based PIs using cognitive reframing theory and compared flexible and fixed dosing intervals to find out which one could more effectively reduce depression with equal total amounts of dosing. The 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (8-item CES-D) and the Positive reframing scale (PRS) were adopted as research instruments. A total of 193 Taiwanese college students were recruited as the research sample and they were randomly assigned to experimental Group A (fixed dosing intervals), experimental Group B (flexible dosing intervals), and the Control Group. The research participants received 17-day interventions with follow-up tests administered in the seventh week of the experiment. Ultimately, 157 participants completed the experiment. According to the ANCOVA results, participants in experimental Group A showed significantly lower degrees of depression than those in the Control Group in both post-test and follow-up stages and displayed greater effect size in the follow-up stage than in the post-test stage. The results indicated that the design of fixed dosing intervals enabled the participants to effectively integrate reflections on reframing learned during PIs into their life. On the contrary, participants in experimental Group B exhibited no significant difference in the degree of depression from those in the Control Group during either the post-test or follow-up stage and manifested poorer effects in the follow-up stage than in the post-test stage. These results demonstrated that fixed dosing intervals achieved better effects than flexible dosing intervals. Participants receiving fixed dosing intervals could more effectively execute cognitive reframing and showed longer-lasting experimental effects, whereas participants using the design of flexible dosing intervals were more prone to forget to implement PIs and attain less positive effects as a result. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk and Protective Factors of Mental Health during Pandemics: The Role of Positive Psychology, Digital Technologies, and Social Networks)
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