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Impaired control (IC) is a defining feature of behavioural addictions including gaming disorder (GD), but few psychometric studies have investigated the predictive power of a dedicated IC measure. In this study, we examine the predictive power of a recently developed IC measure, the Impaired Control Over Gaming Scale (ICOGS), after controlling for known correlates of gaming disorder, including play frequency, gaming urges and negative mood states. A sample of 513 regular gamers, recruited through the online platform Prolific, completed a survey consisting of validated measures, including Petry et al.’s (2014) gaming disorder (GD) measure. Positive correlations were found between GD scores and IC, gaming urges, depression, anxiety, stress and play frequency. A hierarchical linear regression showed that the IC measure explained an additional variance of 10.8% in GD after controlling for the other measures and was the strongest predictor. This study supports the view that IC is an important construct to measure and monitor in research and clinical assessments of GD. Assessing IC in greater detail offers multiple benefits, including: early detection and intervention to prevent escalating problem behaviours and mitigating negative consequences of gaming disorder, personalized treatment to address specific aspects of impaired control, and identification of specific risk factors and treatment progress monitoring with clinicians being able to adapt treatments plans based on IC scores.

Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs have become an important policy-relevant research area since the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing interest has been directed towards strategies that might reduce people's susceptibility to conspiratorial beliefs. In this study, we examined whether encouraging a stronger orientation towards critical scientific appraisal of conspiratorial accounts could reduce CT acceptance. After completing baseline measures of COVID-19 related beliefs and analytical and scientific reasoning abilities, a total of 700 adults were randomly allocated to a control or scientific reasoning manipulation. People assigned to the scientific reasoning condition were found to display significantly lower CT belief endorsement post-intervention as compared to the control group. As well as having implications for the design of future intervention studies, the results of this study encourage a greater focus on specific reasoning skills that may be amenable to a psychoeducation approach, in order to further develop methods to prevent CT beliefs.

Hair and beauty work involves more than a service for aesthetic maintenance. Salon workers represent a source of informal care and social support for clients which requires effective inter- and intra-personal skills. The frequent interaction with multiple clients quintessential to salon work can be understood as emotional labour. Both emotional labour and informal caregiving are risk factors for burnout. Salon workers listen and respond to clients who may reveal confronting personal information, and this may increase the risk of workers experiencing compassion fatigue, also known as vicarious trauma. In this narrative review, we examine 47 studies that have investigated emotional labour and informal caregiving in salon work. We consider factors that contribute to burnout and compassion fatigue, along with protective buffers that may alleviate adverse outcomes. Themes identified relate to Vulnerability factors; Nature of the work role; and Structural issues in the workplace. Few studies of compassion fatigue were found, although some studies discussed exposure to distressing disclosures as risk factors. Further research is needed to investigate compassion fatigue as well as factors that promote wellbeing in salon workers.

Background and aims: The concept of impaired control is central to addictive disorders, including gaming disorder in the DSM-5 and ICD-11. Impaired control refers to the recurrent inability to resist impulses to engage in certain activities or behaviours and the failure to limit or stop this engagement. Although numerous screening tools for gaming disorder symptoms have been developed, these instruments have limited capacity for measuring the nature and extent of impaired control. To address this limitation, the present study reports on the creation of the Impaired Control Over Gaming Scale (ICOGS), an 8-item screening tool to assess gaming-related impaired control. Methods: A total of 513 gamers, including 125 gamers (24.3%) who met the DSM-5 criteria for gaming disorder, were recruited from Prolific, an online crowd-sourcing platform. Results: The ICOGS demonstrated promising psychometric properties. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using two samples provided robust support for a 2-factor model and high internal consistency of the scale. ICOGS scores were significantly and positively associated with gaming disorder symptoms, gaming-related harms, gaming frequency, psychological distress, and neuroticism. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, the ICOGS differentiated between non-problem gamers and those who met the criteria for GD. Discussion and conclusions: Overall, the ICOGS appears to be a valid and reliable scale for use in studies of problem gaming, and may be useful for assessing outcomes of GD interventions that employ self-regulation and stopping techniques to reduce or eliminate problem gaming behavior.

Although many psychological and sociological factors have been implicated in the development of conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs, analytical thinking has been considered a key protective factor. However, it is not clear if engaging in systematic or rigorous information searching is always protective, particularly if this involves a confirmation bias or a lack of scientific reasoning. For example, higher scores on autistic traits, which are commonly associated with a tendency to engage in systematic information searching, have been found to be associated with stronger endorsement of CT beliefs. Here, we investigated whether measures of analytical reasoning need to be refined to focus specifically on scientific reasoning, as analytical thinking has recently shown a positive association with conspiracy beliefs. A total of 565 adults with varying levels of autistic traits, completed measures of CT beliefs, standard analytical reasoning and information searching measures, but also measures of scientific reasoning and belief flexibility (using the bias against disconfirmatory evidence or BADE task). We found that standard measures of analytical thinking and active-open minded thinking were positively associated with CT beliefs and autistic traits. Conversely, higher levels of scientific reasoning and belief flexibility were negatively associated with CT beliefs, autistic and schizotypal traits. The findings encourage the use of more focused measures of logical and scientific reasoning in both psychoeducation interventions and future research relating to CT beliefs.

The boundary between highly engaged and problematic video gaming is often debated in the behavioral addictions field. The present study assessed whether quality of life, motivational and protective factors may differentiate high-frequency gamers (i.e., those who play 30 + hours per week) who did, and did not, meet the DSM-5 criteria for gaming disorder (GD). A total of 403 respondents completed an online survey including standard measures of GD, gaming motivation, quality of life (QOL), and protective factors for behavioral addiction (e.g., adequate sleep and healthy diet). Respondents with GD scored lower on all QOL measures and were more strongly motivated to use gaming to escape problems. Fewer protective factors were identified in GD cases, with an inability to balance gaming with sleep being the largest significant difference between the two groups. High-frequency gaming appears most likely to be problematic if it is used to escape real-world problems or prioritized over important everyday activities.

Psychological momentum (PM) and the hot hand are relatedconcepts describing people’s beliefs regarding streaks ofsuperior performance. This study examined the susceptibilityof perceptions of PM to changes in the streakiness ofotherwise equivalent series. Fifty-five male participants (31basketballers and 24 control) completed a ‘hot-cognition’experiment where they rated individual and team momentumand assessed the likelihood of a future shot’s success afterwatching sequences of basketball shots. The experimentalmanipulation of the order of shots strongly affectedparticipants’ ratings of momentum and, less strongly, theprobability they assigned to the future shot (i.e. the hot handeffect). Basketballers showed stronger reactions tomanipulations of order than the controls, which could beattributed to greater investment in the task. The resultsdemonstrate the importance of distinguishing between PMand the hot hand and also provide a valuable extension ofprior work showing such effects into more realistic scenarios.

Schizotypal and autistic traits have both been implicated in the development of conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs. However, there are both similarities and differences between these traits that may increase an individual’s susceptibility to CT beliefs. Past research has often taken a variable-centred approach which assumes that the relationships among distinct variables (i.e. schizotypy, autistic traits) are homogenous. Given these circumstances, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to assess the extent to which within-individual variation in schizotypal, autistic traits and associated socio-cognitive tendencies are associated with CT beliefs, cognitive flexibility, and scientific reasoning performance. In a sample of 565 adults, five distinct classes were identified. Those with the lowest clinical scores (Class 1) had the highest scientific reasoning and lowest level of CT beliefs, whilst those with the highest clinical scores (Class 4 and 5), had the lowest scientific reasoning and highest CT belief scores. Further analysis revealed some evidence for mixed groups (e.g. Class 4) in which higher analytical reasoning scores co-occurred with higher CT beliefs, but lower scientific reasoning scores. The results did not provide evidence that higher autistic traits independently predicted CT beliefs, but the results support the view that scientific reasoning appears to better differentiate variation in CT beliefs across groups than differences in analytical reasoning.

Objective To examine differences in youth justice (YJ) system contact patterns, early life characteristics, child protection system contact, and adolescent mental health outcomes among young people who have early, late or no contact with the YJ system. Approach Data were from the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform including children in South Australia born 1991-2002, followed from birth to age 18 (n=249,995). Young people were categorised into three groups: 1) those who had their first YJ supervision before age 14, i.e., those who had ‘early’ contact; 2) those who had their first YJ supervision at age 14 or older, i.e., those who had ‘late’ contact; and 3) those who had no contact with the YJ system by age 18. Results Of the 249,995 children born 1991-2002, 4,097 (1.6%) had YJ contact. Of these, 667 (16.3%) had their first YJ supervision early, and 3,430 (83.7%) had their first YJ supervision late. Compared to the late contact group, young people with early contact had more serious YJ contact patterns (e.g., 91% versus 59% ever experienced custodial supervision). Compared to the late contact and no YJ contact groups, the early contact group were: more disadvantaged at birth; had more serious child protection contact by age 10; and a higher proportion had experienced at least one mental health-related hospitalisation from ages 12-18. Conclusion This analysis demonstrates the complex circumstances that precede and co-occur with YJ involvement. Early life adversity and poor adolescent mental health were more pronounced for young people who had early contact with YJ, compared to those who had late contact. This points to the need for investment in early supports.

Cybersecurity fatigue is a form of work disengagement specific to cybersecurity. It manifests as a weariness or aversion to cybersecurity-related workplace behaviors or advice and occurs as a result of prior overexposure to cybersecurity-related work demands or training. While some previous theoretical conceptualizations of cybersecurity fatigue are available, this article is the first to capture all dimensions of the phenomenon in a four-component model. The model holds that cybersecurity fatigue can result from overexposure to workplace cybersecurity advice (e.g., training) or cybersecurity actions (e.g., forced password updates). Similarly, we argue that there can be two types of cybersecurity fatigue: attitudinal (e.g., a belief that cybersecurity is not important) and cognitive (e.g., habituated bad behaviors). We present a multidisciplinary review, which draws on research from management, psychology, and information systems. Practitioners can use the four-component model to identify the type of cybersecurity fatigue that may be occurring in employees and adapt workplace processes accordingly to improve behavior. In addition, we present three illustrative case studies, adapted from employee experiences, to demonstrate the application of the four-component model to an organizational context. The review presents a framework for coordinating the existing approaches to cybersecurity fatigue in the current literature.

Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs are thought to be related to a number of individual differences that make certain individuals more prone to this style of reasoning. In this study, we investigate (a) the relationship between CT beliefs and a standardized measure of judgment (the Bias Against Disconfirmatory Evidence task or BADE) and (b) the extent to which BADE scores are related to specific measures of psychopathology, including schizotypy and delusion-proneness, as measured by the Peters et al.’s Delusions Inventory. The BADE is an evidence integration bias and captures the extent to which individuals display a reduced willingness to integrate disconfirmatory evidence. A total of 358 individuals recruited from an online panel completed standardized measures of CT beliefs, measures of psychopathology, and a standardized BADE task. The results showed that CT-prone individuals showed a stronger BADE effect (i.e., biases against confirmatory and disconfirmatory evidence and a stronger liberal acceptance of absurd statements) and overall poorer evidence integration. Our results suggest that a reduced tendency to revise beliefs in the face of disconfirmatory evidence may contribute to the maintenance of CT beliefs, despite the availability of extensive counter-evidence.

A high percentage of information-based work is now conducted in open-plan offices as opposed to traditional cellular offices. In this systematic review, we compare health, work, and social outcomes as well as employee outcomes for workers in the two environments. From a total of 10,242 papers reviewed, we identified 31 papers which met strict inclusion/exclusion criteria of allowing a direct comparison between the office types. The results showed that working in open-plan workplace designs is associated with more negative outcomes on many measures relating to health, satisfaction, productivity, and social relationship. Notable health outcomes included decreased overall health and increased stress. Environmental characteristics of particular concern included noise and distractions, poor privacy, lighting and glare, and poorer temperature control. Most studies indicated negative effects on social relationships and interactions. Overall, the findings showed that while open-plan workplace designs may offer financial benefits for management, these appear to be offset by the intangible costs associated with the negative effects on workers. The study encourages further focused investigations into design factors as well as employee characteristics that might contribute to better outcomes in open-plan designs.

People who engage in gambling are known to hold erroneous views about the nature of gambling. One of the most commonly observed cognitive biases is the illusion of control, where people’s subjective appraisal of contingency between behavior and events is greater than the objective contingency. Such beliefs have been found to be strongest in problem gamblers and can lead to over-confidence in the ability to win money from gambling. A question, however, is whether such perceptions are (a) specific to gambling and whether gamblers display a tendency to over-estimate contingencies in everyday life and (b) if a tendency to endorse everyday illusion of control beliefs is related to specific gambling-related beliefs among those who gamble. Answers to these questions might provide insights into whether some people are potentially more vulnerable to beliefs that might have implications for gambling. An online sample of 788 adults completed a survey about simple everyday situations where people might attempt to exert control (e.g., pressing elevator buttons more often, throwing dice in games). The survey included a scale that captured everyday situations as well as established measures of illusion of control and superstition in gambling. The results showed that those who report greater control in everyday tasks scored higher on standardized measures of beliefs about chance and gambling-related cognitions relating to illusory control. Scores on both types of measures were higher in gamblers than non-gamblers. The findings suggest that gamblers may differ in how they generally perceive and respond to situations involving tasks largely dominated by chance or limited opportunities for genuine control.

Children who have 'early contact' with youth justice (YJ) are a group of significant policy interest. Understanding circumstances which precede or co-occur with YJ contact can support the development of preventive investments and inform debates about systemic reform, such as 'raise the age'. Using whole-of-population administrative data from the SA Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform, we examine differences between children who have early (i.e. between the ages of 10 and 13 years) versus late (i.e. at age 14 or older) YJ contact, relative to the general population. Children born 1991–2022 were followed from birth to age 18 (N = 249,995). Compared to the late-contact group, children with early contact experienced more serious YJ contact (91% versus 59% experienced custody); were more disadvantaged at birth (e.g. 66% versus 45% born into jobless families); had more serious child protection contact by age 10 (26% versus 12% experienced out-of-home care); and experienced mental health-related hospitalisations from ages 12–18 (43% versus 34%). Relative to the general population, both groups were characterised by significant social and economic disadvantage, child protection contact and mental health challenges. The need for investment in early prevention to divert children from the justice system is clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although leaving statutory out-of-home care can be a challenging time for many young people, it is recognised that young people who have multiple or complex needs find this transition particularly difficult. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by care leavers who have complex needs, as well as to identify some of the best strategies for assisting this population to engage with services and make the transition successfully. Semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups (n = 29) were conducted with 66 individuals who were working in organisations (both government and non-government) that have knowledge of, or contact with, young people leaving care in South Australia. Responses were analysed thematically in relation to the principal challenges and needs of care leavers and the best strategies for encouraging service engagement. The principal challenges related to difficulties in matching the structure of formal services to a population with highly unstructured living arrangements, a history of problematic engagement with the care system and difficulties in social interactions. A set of suggestions for improving service engagement was developed. This included the need for flexible and persistent services, creative, indirect and person-centred approaches to engagement that emphasised the importance of building peer and adult relationships, and developing adaptive life-skills.

Abstract Background Alcohol consumption by young people (particularly early initiation) is a predictor for poorer health in later life. In addition, evidence now clearly shows a causal link between alcohol and cancer. This study investigated prevalence, predictors of alcohol consumption among adolescents including perceptions of the link between alcohol and cancer, and the role of parents and peers. Methods A sample of Australian school students aged 12–17 years participated in a survey (n = 2885). Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine predictors. Results Alcohol use increased with age and by 16, most had tried alcohol with 33.1% of students aged 12–17 reporting that they drank at least occasionally (95% CI = 31.0–35.2). Awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer was low (28.5%). Smoking status and friends’ approval were predictive of drinking, whereas parental disapproval was protective. Those aged 14–17 who did not think the link between alcohol and cancer was important were more likely to drink, as were those living in areas of least disadvantage. The only factors that predicted recent drinking were smoking and the perception that alcohol was easy to purchase. Conclusions An education campaign highlighting the link between alcohol and cancer may have positive flow-on effects for young people, and schools should incorporate this messaging into any alcohol education programs. Consideration should be given to factors that serve to regulate under-aged accessibility of alcohol.

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is positioned in the appendix of the DSM-5 as a condition requiring further study. The IGD criteria refer to withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, anxiety, or sadness, that follow cessation of Internet gaming (APA, 2013). The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the nature of Internet gaming withdrawal symptoms, if they occur, under gaming abstinence conditions. This study employed a repeated-measures protocol to examine the cognitive-affective reactions of participants undertaking an 84-h Internet gaming abstinence period. The sample included individuals who met the IGD criteria as well as those who regularly played Internet games but did not meet the IGD criteria. Outcome variables included affect (positive and negative), psychological distress (depression, anxiety, stress), and Internet gaming withdrawal symptoms (craving/urge, thoughts about gaming, inability to resist gaming). A total of 24 participants (Mage = 24.6 years, SD = 5.8) were recruited from online gaming communities, and completed a series of online surveys before, during, and after abstaining from Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. Both the IGD group and the non-IGD group experienced an abstinence-induced decline in withdrawal symptomatology, negative affect, and psychological distress. The IGD group experienced its largest decline in withdrawal symptomatology within the first 24 h of abstinence. These preliminary data suggest that gaming withdrawal symptoms may follow, at least initially, negative linear and quadratic trends. Further prospective work in larger samples involving longer periods of abstinence is required to verify and expand upon these observations.