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Psychological Well-Being in Digital Environments

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 20342

Special Issue Editors

Department of Management and Marketing, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Shreveport, LA 71115, USA
Interests: digital marketing; digital consumer behavior; digital technology; social media marketing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department, Department of Integrated Strategic Communication, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
Interests: digital consumer behavior; strategic communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been required to spend most of their time at home; this situation has led to people being more stressed. Hence, the number of people pursuing mental and physical well-being at home has dramatically increased, and many organizations have been trying to introduce and develop digital products and/or services (for leisure activities or for work) encouraging their target audience to enhance their physical and mental well-being states at home (Li, Yang, Dou, and Cheung, 2020). For example, using a digital environment (e.g., live-streaming services for watching e-sport games and matches and/or playing a video game) could be one of the safest and most effective ways to result in a higher level of psychological well-being among people, making them excited and happy at home (Kim and Kim, 2020).

Accordingly, Dr. Kim and I have an interest in empirical or conceptual papers investigating how digital environments/products/services influence people’s psychological well-being and favorable outcomes toward digital ones. For this Special Issue, papers will need to contribute to the existing digital environment and psychological well-being literature by applying “the COVID-19 pandemic situation” to their research contexts and proposing meaningful implications for people’s own mental condition management through consuming products/services in digital environments. Dr. Kim and I look forward for your valuable contributions!

Dr. Minseong Kim
Dr. Jihye Kim
Guest Editors

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

  • psychological well-being
  • digital environment
  • digital product
  • digital service
  • mental health communication
  • social media

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1370 KiB  
Article
Utilisation of Digital Applications for Personal Recovery Amongst Youth with Mental Health Concerns
by Vicki C. Dallinger, Govind Krishnamoorthy, Carol du Plessis, Arun Pillai-Sasidharan, Alice Ayres, Lillian Waters, Yasmin Groom, Olivia Alston, Linda Anderson and Lorelle Burton
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16818; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192416818 - 14 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1602
Abstract
There is an increasing population of youths that report mental health issues. Research has shown that youths are reluctant to seek help for various reasons. A majority of those who do seek help are using digital mental health supports. Subsequently, efforts to promote [...] Read more.
There is an increasing population of youths that report mental health issues. Research has shown that youths are reluctant to seek help for various reasons. A majority of those who do seek help are using digital mental health supports. Subsequently, efforts to promote youth mental health have focused on the use of digital applications as a means of overcoming barriers related to factors including stigma and lack of available services. The worldwide move toward recovery-oriented care led to emerging research on personal recovery amongst youths with mental health concerns. This study sought to address the need for recovery-oriented digital resources for youths. It utilised a qualitative design methodology to develop a rich interpretation of how youths are using digital interventions to support their mental health recovery journey. It sought to understand how existing digital applications are useful for youth recovery and identified characteristics associated with recovery and engagement. The content analysis generated five categories that represent facilitators of youth recovery and the thematic analysis identified key elements of digital applications that support youth recovery. The results offer complimentary support and guidance for recovery-oriented care and the use of digital mental health interventions in the promotion of personal recovery amongst youths. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Psychological Well-Being in Digital Environments)
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19 pages, 992 KiB  
Article
“Digital Dividend” or “Digital Divide”: What Role Does the Internet Play in the Health Inequalities among Chinese Residents?
by Dongling Zhang, Guoqing Zhang, Yuxin Jiao, Yanyan Wang and Pengnian Wang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15162; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192215162 - 17 Nov 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1677
Abstract
With the vigorous development of the medical industry in China, residents’ health has been significantly improved. However, along with the income gap, urban–rural gap, and healthcare resource gap caused by economic development, health inequality has become a fundamental barrier to the promotion of [...] Read more.
With the vigorous development of the medical industry in China, residents’ health has been significantly improved. However, along with the income gap, urban–rural gap, and healthcare resource gap caused by economic development, health inequality has become a fundamental barrier to the promotion of residents’ health. The popularity of the Internet has helped close the gap to some extent, but it also has drawbacks. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2018, we evaluated the effects of Internet usage on health disparities among residents using fixed effect models, mediation effect models, and other methodologies. The findings indicate that Internet usage can help to minimize health inequality since it lowers income inequality, promotes health consciousness, and reduces depression. Furthermore, Internet usage plays a greater role on the health improvement of the middle-aged, the elderly, urban residents, and females. Although the Internet has brought “digital dividends” in general, the Internet usage rates among different groups also reveal that there is a clear “digital gap” among rural residents, elderly groups, and low-income groups. These results have significant implications for promoting healthcare equality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Psychological Well-Being in Digital Environments)
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16 pages, 2160 KiB  
Article
Interethnic Influencing Factors Regarding Buttocks Body Image in Women from Nigeria, Germany, USA and Japan
by Christoph Wallner, Svenja Kruber, Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo, Olusola Ayandele, Hikari Namatame, Tosin Tunrayo Olonisakin, Peter O. Olapegba, Yoko Sawamiya, Tomohiro Suzuki, Yuko Yamamiya, Maximilian Johannes Wagner, Marius Drysch, Marcus Lehnhardt and Björn Behr
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13212; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192013212 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4870
Abstract
Background: Body image research deals a lot with awareness of the body as an entity. Studies that consider individual anatomical aspects and place them in an intercultural context are rarely present. Methods: For this purpose, general data, body perception and judgment of body [...] Read more.
Background: Body image research deals a lot with awareness of the body as an entity. Studies that consider individual anatomical aspects and place them in an intercultural context are rarely present. Methods: For this purpose, general data, body perception and judgment of body images from 2163 (48% female and 52% male) participants from Germany, Nigeria, the USA and Japan were evaluated as part of a survey. Results: There were clear differences in the personal body image of the participants’ own buttocks, the buttocks as a beauty ideal and the way in which dissatisfaction was dealt with in different countries. In addition to sexual well-being (importance score: 0.405 a.u.), the country of origin (0.353), media consumption (0.042) and one’s own weight (0.069) were also identified as influencing factors for satisfaction with one’s own buttocks. A clear evolution could be derived regarding a WHR (waist-to-hip ratio) of well below 0.7, which was consistently favored by the participants but also propagated by influencers through images (p < 0.001). In this context, participants who indicated celebrities as role models for the buttocks showed a correspondingly high level of dissatisfaction with their own buttocks (R = −0.207, p < 0.001, ρ = −0.218). Conclusion: Overall, a highly significant correlation was shown between the consumption frequency of Instagram, TikTok and pornography with the negative perception of women’s own buttocks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Psychological Well-Being in Digital Environments)
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19 pages, 836 KiB  
Article
Rise of Social Media Influencers as a New Marketing Channel: Focusing on the Roles of Psychological Well-Being and Perceived Social Responsibility among Consumers
by Jihye Kim and Minseong Kim
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2362; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19042362 - 18 Feb 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 11105
Abstract
This empirical research investigated the structural relationships between social media influencer attributes, perceived friendship, psychological well-being, loyalty, and perceived social responsibility of influencers, focusing on the perspective of social media users. More specifically, this study conceptually identified social media influencer attributes such as [...] Read more.
This empirical research investigated the structural relationships between social media influencer attributes, perceived friendship, psychological well-being, loyalty, and perceived social responsibility of influencers, focusing on the perspective of social media users. More specifically, this study conceptually identified social media influencer attributes such as language similarity, interest similarity, interaction frequency, and self-disclosure and examined the respective effects of each dimension on perceived friendship and psychological well-being, consequently resulting in loyalty toward social media influencers. The authors collected and analyzed data from 388 social media users in the United States via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk with multivariate analyses to test the hypothesized associations among the variables in this study. The findings indicated that perceived friendship was significantly influenced by language similarity, interest similarity, and self-disclosure, but did not have a significant impact on psychological well-being. Additionally, perceived friendship significantly affected psychological well-being and loyalty, and psychological well-being significantly influenced loyalty. Lastly, social media influencers’ social responsibility moderated the path from psychological well-being to loyalty. Based on these findings, this study proposes theoretical and managerial implications for the social media influencer marketing context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Psychological Well-Being in Digital Environments)
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