?
Does quitting social networks change feelings of loneliness among freshmen? An experimental study
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. 2021. Vol. 13. No. 1. P. 149–163.
Purpose
The first year of college is a stressful life period connected with the experience of loneliness, isolation and depression since the majority of freshmen can no longer maintain an equally close relationship with school friends and family. Social networks have become a significant part of students' daily lives and might be an effective tool for maintaining relationship and reducing loneliness. There are contradictory results concerning the relationship between social networks sites (SNS) use and feelings of loneliness.
Design/methodology/approach
A four-week experiment was conducted to study the effect of SNS on feelings of social and emotional loneliness across freshmen. The treatment group (n = 40) took a break from SNS, while the control group (n = 37) used SNS as usual.
Findings
Comparison of the treatment and control groups showed that quitting SNS does not change either feeling of social/emotional loneliness. This paper also found that feelings of social and emotional loneliness did not depend on freshmen's positive/negative attitudes toward being alone.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few that uses experimental design to study the effects of using social networks on the psychological state of students in the context of higher education. The results showed that refusing SNS use can have a positive potential for psychological well-being of freshmen since solitude can be used by them as time for self-discovery and self-development. According to the results, social networks neither increase nor decrease the feeling of loneliness, and offline learning and communication environment plays a more significant role in the adaptation of freshmen. These results allow to take a new look at the studies related to the relationship between SNS use and loneliness and the role of social networks in the adaptation of freshmen.
WANG P., YANG Y., ZHANG Y. et al., Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 2025 Vol. 31 No. 1 P. 45–53
Objective: To revise The Developmental Crisis Questionnaire (DCQ) and test its reliability and validity in adult age groups. Methods: The Chinese version of DCQ was determined by item analysis and exploratory factor analysis, and its structure was determined by confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, the reliability and validity of the scale were tested. Results: The 10 items of Chinese DCQ ...
Added: October 11, 2026
Petrovskiy V., Социальная психология и общество 2026 Т. 17 № 1 С. 183 – 186
The article discusses the paper by G.V. Akopov “Stages of categorical design of social psychology in Russia (on the 95th anniversary of B.D. Parygin)”, published in issue 2 (2025) of the journal “Social Psychology and Society”. ...
Added: October 9, 2026
Gavrilova E., Novoselova K., Myachykov A. et al., Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics 2026 Vol. 23 No. 3 P. 498–511
The term “broad autism phenotype” (BAP) refers to individuals who do not meet the diagnostic criteria for autism but share some of its features, including social difficulties and atypicalities in visual perception and attention that have been linked to a detail-oriented cognitive style. To examine both the cognitive and social aspects of BAP, we employed ...
Added: October 8, 2026
Tatarko A., Юрайт, 2026.
Курс знакомит читателя с основными моделями национальной и организационной культуры, а также современными исследованиями в области кросс-культурных аспектов управления и лидерства. Особое внимание уделено практическим вопросам: отбор и подготовка экспатриантов, международный рекрутинг, кросс-культурный тренинг, работа поликультурных команд и мотивация персонала в международных компаниях. Читатель найдет ответ на ключевой вопрос: как учитывать межкультурные различия при управлении ...
Added: October 6, 2026
Мухамедкаримова Д. Ф., Умуркулова М. М., Galyapina V. N. et al., Вестник Карагандинского университета. Серия Педагогика 2026 Т. 31 № 3 С. 69–77
Currently, artificial intelligence occupies a solid place among traditional pedagogical technologies and approaches, which is the subject of widespread discussion among domestic and foreign scientists and researchers. This is because the introduction of AI into higher education, despite its high potential, faces a wide range of economic, social, and ethical obstacles. These include resistance to ...
Added: October 6, 2026
Сизикова Т. Э., Леонов С. В., Polikanova I., Национальный психологический журнал 2026 Т. 21 № 4 С. 79–89
Background.
The relevance of this study is driven by the rapid increase in anxiety disorders in modern society. According to WHO data from 2021, 359 million people worldwide suffered from anxiety disorders. In psychological practice, there is a growing number of techniques being applied, including those aimed at reducing anxiety, but their effectiveness is not always scientifically proven. Thus, ...
Added: October 6, 2026
Grishutina M. M., Kostenko V., Lebedeva A., Вопросы психологии 2025 Т. 71 № 4 С. 127–135
В русскоязычной психологической литературе конструкт «агентность» встречается редко и обычно отождествляется с понятием «субъектность». В англоязычном дискурсе при рассмотрении агентности изучают два аспекта: ее ощущение и оценку. Дифференциальный опросник переживания агентности (Sense of Agency Scale) А. Тапал и коллег – ДОПА – направлен на измерение общего ощущаемого контроля над собственными произвольными действиями. Целью текущего исследования ...
Added: October 5, 2026
Ивашкевич Б. И., Dvoinin A., Kostenko V. et al., Психологический журнал 2026 Т. 47 № 3 С. 113–126
Целью исследования стала адаптация Опросника репрезентаций Бога (The Questionnaire of God Representations-17, QGR-17) на урссксязычный выборке. Опросник направлен на количественную оценку ментальных представлений и эмоциональных установок в отношении Бога. Общая выборка исследования включила 222 респондента в возрасте от 18 до 54 лет (M = 25.4, SD = 7.71), из которых 72.5% составили женщины, 43% идентифицировали ...
Added: October 5, 2026
Lyu M., Omopekunola M., Wang F., / Series 2026.aimecon-wip.55 "Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con)". 2026.
Large language models (LLMs) have been proposed as a substitute for field trials in itemdifficulty estimation, but evidence about where they succeed is usually drawn from a single test form. We compare LLM difficulty predictions across three task types that make different language demands, grammar cloze, semantic cloze and reading comprehension, on two operational Grade ...
Added: October 5, 2026
Martín-Luengo B., Zinchenko O., Dolgoarshinnaia A., Human Brain Mapping 2026 Vol. 47 No. 11 P. 1–11
Being able to remember the origin of a particular memory is for times even more important than the memory itself. Yet, although memory for the information and memory for the source are intrinsically connected, the particular neural underpinnings for the source‐memory monitoring remains unclear. We run an fMRI meta‐analysis to help to clarify the brain ...
Added: October 5, 2026
Petrovskiy V., Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics 2025 Vol. 22 No. 1 P. 80–105
The first attempt is being made to synthesize fundamental, cultural, and practical psychology, focused on a transactional and analytical interpretation of personality (the “TA-model”). The professional language of transactional analysis, the identification and names of “games” and life scenarios, the very stylistics of Berne's texts: all these are a manifestation of the effect of the ...
Added: October 4, 2026
Antonova N., Федулова Е. В., Психологические исследования: электронный научный журнал 2026 Т. 19 № 107 С. 1–14
The aim of this article is to analyze the theoretical and methodological foundations of cognitive-behavioral coaching and to identify prospects for its further development and research. The article examines the historical prerequisites for the emergence of cognitive-behavioral coaching as a helping practice. The distinctions between cognitive-behavioral coaching (CBC) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are analyzed. The ...
Added: October 4, 2026
Nikiforova K., Kulikova S., Platonova T. et al., Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology 2026 Vol. 15 No. 3 P. 98–113
The increasing prevalence of technology in daily life has led to a rising demand for IT specialists. In response, educational curricula have been adapted to incorporate coding lessons as early as primary school. However, the cognitive processes underlying computational thinking (CT) — the ability to apply a systematic problem-solving approach akin to computer logic — ...
Added: October 4, 2026
Monahhova E., Gorodnicheva Y., Morozova A. et al., Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics 2026 Vol. 23 No. 3 P. 512–527
The rapid proliferation of misinformation in digital environments poses a serious threat to public health, political institutions, and public discourse. Behavioral research has accumulated substantial evidence on why people believe and share false information, yet individual studies address cognitive biases, social factors, or emotional processes largely in isolation. Additionally, the influential integrative frameworks that do ...
Added: October 3, 2026
Polarization of opinions in the group: a modeling algorithm considering the dynamics of social bonds
Chebotarev V., Andreyuk D., Elizarova Anastasiya et al., Procedia Computer Science 2022 Vol. 213 No. C P. 596–601
The dynamics of opinion in a group are of interest for a number of practical purposes. In particular, consensus helps and polarization of opinions hinders cohesive teamwork. Existing approaches for modeling opinion dynamics mostly do not take into account the dynamism of social relations in a group. This paper proposes an algorithm and a program ...
Added: October 2, 2026
Ragimova A., Imanaeva M., Nieto Doval C. M. et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2026 Vol. 20 P. 1–15
Background: Motor resonance reflects the activation of the motor system during the observation of others’ actions and is considered a physiological marker of the human mirror neuron system (MNS). This study investigated whether the excitatory and inhibitory balance in the primary motor cortex, driven by glutamatergic and GABAergic mechanisms, is linked to the strength of ...
Added: October 2, 2026
Nisskaya A., Беляевская Е. С., Современная зарубежная психология 2026 Т. 3 № 15 С. 89–97
Context. The preschool period is a critical stage for the development of prosocial behavior. Children begin to understand the feelings of others, and the foundations of empathy and mutual assistance are formed. Situation-specific expressions of care can develop into more stable forms when children are embedded in a system of social relationships. However, the specific characteristics ...
Added: October 2, 2026
Pavlova A., Тихомирова Т. Н., Исматуллина В. et al., Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Психология 2025 Т. 15 № 4 С. 610–632
Представлены результаты анализа психометрических свойств русскоязычной версии Шкалы личностной тревожности (STAI-T) на масштабной выборке студентов вузов Российской Федерации. Личностная тревожность отражает предрасположенность к чрезмерному проявлению тревоги в отношении широкого круга событий, восприятие их как потенциально опасных, что приводит к трудностям адаптационного характера, в том числе на этапе перехода в систему высшего образования. Уровень проявления тревожности ...
Added: October 2, 2026
Lubashevsky I., Lubashevskiy V., Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 2026 Vol. 498 Article 135441
We develop a novel cloud-function formalism describing the dynamical relationship between sensory-information processing in large-scale brain networks (supraliminal processing) and the content of the mental representation of an observed object. The formalism combines elements of neural field theory for large-scale neural activity with the spatial characteristics of perceived objects and their embedding in the environment ...
Added: October 2, 2026
Iskakova B., Kleinlein E. V., Prisyazhniuk D. et al., European Journal of Education 2026 Vol. 61 No. 3 Article e70810
This study examines pre-service teachers' (PSTs) attitudes towards inclusive education in Germany and Russia and investigates how they relate to teacher training curricula and teacher educators' discourse. A mixed-methods design was used, including an online survey of PSTs (n = 460) with an open-ended question, curriculum review and exploratory interviews with university educators in both contexts. The ...
Added: August 3, 2026
Reznichenko S. I., Кияненко И. К., Nartova-Bochaver S. K. et al., Экспериментальная психология 2026 Т. 19 № 2 С. 10–28
Abstract
Context and relevance. In the context of accelerated urbanization and a growing disconnect from the natural
environment, there is increasing interest in biophilic attitudes — a system of stable views, beliefs, and
evaluations that reflect a person’s relationship with living nature and shape their psychological well-being and
environmentally responsible behavior. Existing tools for their measurement, such as the ...
Added: August 3, 2026
Установки по отношению к домашнему насилию: категории отношения, измерения, предикторы и последствия
Ananyeva O. A., Современная зарубежная психология 2025 Т. 14 № 4 С. 77–86
Context and relevance. Domestic violence (DV) is a global problem that worsens during social crises and international conflicts, especially in countries that lack legislative protection against DV, including Russia. Public opinion polls show that Russians agree that DV is a serious problem, but disagree on whether Russian society needs to adopt a law on DV ...
Added: November 18, 2025
Biryukova S., Kareva D., Stuzhuk D. et al., Журнал исследований социальной политики 2026 Т. 24 № 2 С. 243–258
This article examines the factors associated with subjective loneliness among young people, older adults, and women with young children in Russia. The study is based on an online survey conducted in 2023, which used a representative sample of Russians aged 20–74 (N=6557). The authors demonstrate that the level of subjective loneliness is statistically significantly higher than ...
Added: October 28, 2025
Maksimenko A., Забелина Е. В., Круз-Карденес Х. et al., Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики 2026 Т. 23 № 2 С. 317–333
Social networks have intensified conspicuous consumption, turning visual travelrelated content into a key tool for status self-presentation and the affirmation of social position. The present study is aimed at examining the socio-demographic markers of conspicuous consumption on social networks and its relationship with loneliness. The study involved 100 respondents (M = 39.34; SD = 10.31), including ...
Added: October 4, 2025