| By 2020,there were 5.2 billion cyber citizens and 6.16 billion smartphone owners worldwide,represents 65.6% and 78.0% of the world population,respectively.Moreover,according to the data from “Report on the status of internet use among national minors in 2020,”there were 183 million underage cyber citizens in China,with a 94.9% internet penetration rate among the Chinese underage population.The report also revealed that 82.9% underage cyber citizens have their own internet equipment,and 92.2% underage cyber citizens surf online via smartphones.With the rapid scientific development in recent decades,mobile technologies and the Internet have gradually became an inseparable apart of people’s daily life.Although electronic technologies make our lives more convenient and entertaining,it does not mean we can ignore the harm that comes with these merits.Prolonged screen time not only causes various physical and psychological problems like vision problems,bone deformation,obesity,anxiety,depression,attention deficits,and delayed brain and cognitive developments,it also cause immeasurable harms to one’s social health.Objective:The study was designed to measure the average daily screen time over a week,three types of psychological traits（Big Five personality,emotional intelligence,psychological entitlement）,and sociability of adolescents living in Changchun between the age 12 and 15.By analyze the independent influence of screen time and psychological traits on sociability,as well as the interactive effect between screen time and different psychological traits,the study aimed to identify psychological traits that make adolescents prone to excessive screen time and traits that contribute to better social skills,and to provide parents and teachers with scientific evidence for assist children to build more sociable characteristics.Method:The study applied interaction model,which designed average daily screen time and psychological traits as independent variables,and sociability as the dependent variable.Since psychology is a complicated and multidimensional realm,it is impossible to find a single concept that can summarize the entirety of the subject.Thereby,the study divided psychological trait into three subcategories,each subcategory represents a distinctive aspect of psychological trait:personality can affect people’s behavioral patterns,therefore,it represents the behavioral aspect of psychological trait;emotional intelligence represents the emotional aspect of psychological trait;and psychological entitlement represents the cognitive aspect of psychological trait because it is defined as a tendency of belief.There were two phases involved in the data analysis.In phase one,the study analyzed the independent influence of independent variables（average daily screen time,personality,emotional intelligence,psychological entitlement）on the dependent variable（sociability）to establish correlations.Then,in phase two,the interactive effect between screen time and different psychological traits were tested to examine whether the interactive influence on sociability showed statistically significant differences compare to the sole effect of each independent variable.Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial development Model suggests adolescence is a crucial period where many psychological and cognitive developments take place.Therefore,it was seen as the best window of opportunity to exert external influences to intervene the psychological development of adolescents,help them to reduce daily screen time and build more sociable characteristics.In order to do this,we must first identify psychological factors that have strong influences on the screen time and sociability of adolescent.The study used cluster sampling method to collect data from five middle schools in Changchun city,Jilin province,China in May and September of 2021.The question “In the past week,what was your average daily screen time（including the time spent on television,computer,tablet and smartphone）during weekdays（Monday to Friday）?” and “In the past week,what was your average daily screen time（including the time spent on television,computer,tablet and smartphone）during weekends（Saturday and Sunday）?” were used to calculate the average daily screen time of adolescents;the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory brief version was used to measure the personality tendencies of adolescents;Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale was used to measure the emotional intelligence level;Psychological Entitlement Scale was used to measure the psychological entitlement level;and Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire was used to access the sociability level of adolescents.After went all questionnaires through quality control protocols,5,358 out of 6,111 copies of questionnaire were included in the analysis.Epi Data version 3.1 was used to build the database,and SPSS 24.0 software was used to organize and analyze datasets.Descriptive analysis（average ± standard deviation for quantitative data,frequency and percentage for qualitative data）,Pearson correlation analysis,multiple comparison test and interaction analysis were used during the analysis.Result:（1）Totally 5,358 middle school students between 12 and 15 years old from Changchun city were included in the study.Among all,there were 2,714（50.7%）males and 2,644（49.3%）females;2,487（46.4%）students were enrolled in Grade 7,1,948（37.0%）students were enrolled in Grade 8,and 887（16.6%）students enrolled in Grade 9.（2）The result of descriptive analysis showed the average daily screen time of adolescents was（2.4 ± 2.46）hr/day,therein,1,235（23.05%）students reported to have daily screen time more than 3 hr and identified as excessive screen time users.The average score of participants on the emotional intelligence was（55.26 ± 11.49）;the average score of participants on the psychological entitlement was（35.34 ± 11.66）;for personality traits,the average score on neuroticism trait was（26.96 ± 8.46）,the average score on conscientiousness trait was（31.11± 7.10）,the average score on agreeableness trait was（34.55 ± 7.04）,the average score on openness trait was（32.01 ± 7.45）,the average score on extraversion trait was（30.36 ± 7.83）.At last,participants’ average score on sociability was（92.85 ± 20.07）.（3）The Pearson correlation analysis suggested that sociability has a significant negative correlation with screen time and neuroticism trait（P < 0.001）,and it has a significant positive correlation with emotional intelligence,psychological entitlement,conscientiousness trait,agreeableness trait,openness trait and extraversion trait（P < 0.001）.Results also showed screen time has a significant positive correlation with psychological entitlement and neuroticism trait（P < 0.001）,and screen time has a significant negative correlation with emotional intelligence,conscientiousness trait,agreeableness trait,openness trait and extraversion trait（P < 0.001）.（4）The multiple comparison test indicated adolescents with less than 1 hour of daily screen time scored highest on the sociability scale with statistically significant differences（P < 0.05）compare to other groups.In addition,adolescents with 3 to 4 hours or more than 4 hours of daily screen time showed statistically insignificant differences in term of their scores on sociability,suggesting the negative effect of screen time on social skills does not vary much after pass the 3-hour marker.（5）The results of interaction analysis showed the interaction between screen time and emotional intelligence had statistically significant（P < 0.001）influence on the sociability of adolescents;the interactive influence of screen time and psychological entitlement on sociability was also significant（P < 0.05）.Furthermore,the interaction between screen time and neuroticism trait,conscientiousness trait,and agreeableness trait showed insignificant influences（P > 0.05）on the sociability score;but the interactive influence of screen time and openness trait,and the interactive influence of screen time and extraversion trait on the sociability score were both statistically significant（P < 0.05）.Conclusion:Study results have proofed that one’s social skills are closely related to the length of one’s daily screen time and various psychological factors,and reached following conclusions:（1）Emotional intelligence has the strongest correlation with sociability.（2）Adolescents with shorter daily screen time often showed higher emotional intelligence,weaker privileged thinking,and more extroverted,open-minded,conscientious and agreeable personality traits.（3）Adolescents with stronger social skills often possess higher emotional intelligence,higher psychological entitlement level,more recessive neuroticism traits,and more obvious extraversion,openness,conscientiousness and agreeableness personality traits.（4）Reduce screen time could effectively help adolescents to enhance their emotional intelligence,reduce privileged thinking,build more extroverted and open-minded personality traits.（5）Reduce neuroticism trait and enhance conscientiousness and agreeableness traits could also help adolescents to improve their social skills,however,the development of these three types of personality traits do not affect by the duration of screen time in any significant ways.Sociability is not only a skill essential to humanity,it also plays an important role in the maintenance and improvement of social cohesion.Help adolescents to improve their emotional intelligence and build more sociable personalities is an important task for both parents and the entire society. |
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