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Mohsen Saffari,1,2,* I-Hua Chen,3,* Po-Ching Huang,4 Kerry S O’Brien,5 Yi-Ping Hsieh,6 Ji-Kang Chen,7 Yun-Hsuan Chang,8– 11 Xingyong Jiang,12 Nadia Bevan,5 Yen-Ling Chang,13 Jung-Sheng Chen,14 Ching-Chung Tsai,15,16 Mark D Griffiths,17 Chung-Ying Lin4,18– 20 1Health Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2Health Education Department, Faculty of Health, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Chinese Academy of Education Big Data, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, People’s Republic of China; 4Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 5School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; 6Department of Social Work, College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA; 7Department of Social Work, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong; 8Institute of Gerontology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 9Institute of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 10Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 11Institute of Genomics and Bioinformatics, College of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; 12Yangan Primary School of Qionglai City, Qionglai, People’s Republic of China; 13Department of Family Medicine, Cardinal Tien Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan; 14Department of Medical Research, E-Da Hospital, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 15Department of Pediatrics, E-Da Hospital, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 16School of Medicine, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 17International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK; 18Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 19Depart

The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of four instruments related to internet use, namely the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS), (nine-item) Internet Gaming Disorder Scale Short Form (IGDS9-SF), and Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMPQ) as well as their associations with psychological distress among Malaysian university students. A total of 380 Malaysian university students (71.6% females, mean age 24.0 years) were recruited through convenience sampling and completed an online survey including questions concerning socio-demographic background, social media addiction, smartphone addiction, internet gaming disorder, and nomophobia. Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis were applied to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instruments and Cronbach’s alpha value and McDonald’s omega value were used to confirm the internal consistency reliability of the instruments. The unidimensional structure was confirmed for the BSMAS, SABAS, and IGDS9-SF while the four-factor structure was confirmed for NMPQ. All instruments showed good internal consistency reliability. Promising validity and reliability were confirmed for BSMAS, SABAS, IGDS9-SF, and NMPQ. Therefore, they are useful to assess different types of problematic internet use among university students in Malaysia. Furthermore, a significant association was observed between internet use and psychological distress. The present study is the first to investigate the validity and reliability of BSMAS, SABAS, IGDS9-SF, and NMPQ among Malaysian university students using rigorous psychometric testing methods (i.e., Rasch analysis).

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) is important for health. However, there is little evidence on how weight stigma, time spent on sedentary activities (including smartphone, social media, online learning), time spent on outdoor activity, and nomophobia associate with PA among Chinese individuals with consideration of gender. The present study examined the aforementioned associations in the COVID-19 pandemic era. MethodsUniversity students (N = 3,135; 1,798 females, 1,337 males) with a mean age of 19.65 years (SD = 2.38) years completed an online survey from November to December, 2021. The online survey assessed weight stigma (using the Perceived Weight Stigma Scale and Weight Bias Internalization Scale), PA (using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form), time spent on different activities (using self-designed items for time on smartphone, outdoor activity, social media, and online learning), and nomophobia (using the Nomophobia Questionnaire). Parallel mediation models were constructed (dependent variable: PA; mediators: perceived weight stigma, weight-related self-stigma, time spent on smartphone, time spent on outdoor activity, time spent on social media, and time spent online learning; independent variable: nomophobia) and evaluated using Hayes' Process Macro Model 4 (IBM SPSS 20.0). ResultsWeight-related self-stigma (beta = -0.06; p = 0.03), time spent on outdoor activity (beta = 0.21; p < 0.001), time spent on social media (beta = 0.07; p = 0.02), time spent on online learning (beta = 0.06; p = 0.03), and nomophobia (beta = -0.07; p = 0.01) were all significant factors explaining the PA among female participants. Perceived weight stigma (beta = -0.07; p = 0.01), time spent on outdoor activity (beta = 0.27; p < 0.001), and time spent on online learning (beta = 0.10; p = 0.002) were all significant factors explaining PA among male participants. ConclusionChinese healthcare providers should design programs on weight stigma reduction and o

Background: Prior research has shown preliminary evidence that calligraphy activity improves various body functions and decreases severity of psychotic symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia. However, major limitations of earlier studies include small and heterogeneous samples. The current large-scale randomized controlled trial examined effects of calligraphy activity on cognition (including attention), emotions, psychotic symptoms, quality of life, and mood in people with schizophrenia. Methods: One-hundred-and-fifty patients with schizophrenia were randomly allocated to the treatment group (receiving calligraphy activity) or the control group (receiving general activity), both of which lasted for 24weeks (70 minutes per session; one session per week). Assessments were conducted at pretest, posttest, and three-month follow-up. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Chu's Attention Test, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, World Health Questionnaire on the Quality of Life-Brief Form, and Visual Analogue Scale were used. Results: Improved cognition and attention were found in both groups, although no group effects were shown. The treatment group appeared to show lower severity of positive symptoms at follow-up than posttest, whereas the control group appeared to show the opposite pattern. Improved mood was found in the treatment group. Conclusion: This study provides evidence regarding effects of calligraphy activity on increasing cognition and potentially decreasing severity of positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Calligraphy activity can be incorporated in clinical occupational therapy and may be provided to supplement medication treatment.