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Background: Although the physical activities have demonstrated efficacy in improving physical self-perception, the findings of available studies in college students were conflicting. This review aimed to examine the effects of physical activity interventions on physical self-perception in college students. Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost, Embase, Scopus, CNKI, WanFang, and Chinese Technical Periodicals were searched from inception to April 2024. Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or non-RCTs (non-RCTs) that examined the effects of physical activity interventions on college students' physical self-perception. Random-effects models were used in meta-analyses to synthesize effect sizes. Results: Forty studies (17 RCTs and 23 non-RCTs) with 4955 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, physical activity interventions had small to moderate significant effect on physical self-worth (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.44, P <.00001), perceived sports competence (SMD = 0.60, P <.00001), perceived physical condition (SMD = 0.45, P <.00001), perceived physical strength (SMD = 0.53, P <.00001), and perceived body attractiveness (SMD = 0.54, P <.00001). Significant differences were observed in study design (P =.031–.039), intervention type (P =.003–.031), and intervention duration (P =.002–.036) for some aspects of physical self-perception, such as perceived physical strength and perceived body attractiveness. Conclusions: Physical activity interventions have beneficial effects on physical self-perception in college students, especially those conducted for 12 weeks, 3 times or more per week, lasting 90 minutes or more per session. Large, high-quality RCTs are required to further confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNLABELLED: Concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of digital technology use on youth mental health and well-being are high. However, most studies have several methodological limitations: relying on cross-sectional designs and retrospective reports, assessing technology use as an omnibus construct, and focusing on between- instead of within-person comparisons. This study addresses these limitations by prospectively following young adolescents (n = 388) over a 14-day ecological momentary assessment study to test whether adolescents digital technology use is linked with self-reported emotional dysregulation and self-esteem and whether these relationships are stronger for adolescent girls than boys. We found no evidence that adolescents experienced higher emotional dysregulation (b = - .02; p = .07) and lower self-esteem (b = .004; p = .32) than they normally do on days where they use more technology than they normally do (within-person). Adolescents with higher average daily technology use over the study period did not experience lower levels of self-esteem (between-person, b = - .02; p = .13). Adolescents with higher average daily technology use across the two-week period did report higher levels of emotional dysregulation (p = .01), albeit the between-person relation was small (b = .08). There was no evidence that gender moderated the associations, both between and within adolescents (bs = - .02-.13, p = .06 - .55). Our findings contribute to the growing counter-narrative that technology use does not have as large of an impact on adolescents mental health and well-being as the public is concerned about. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-024-00282-w.

Procrastination is a widespread problem among students, yet feasible solutions have remained elusive. Recognizing the detrimental impact of procrastination on students’ potential, this study aims to investigate the underlying factors contributing to this problem. Specifically, this study explores the associations between academic identity, self-esteem, and procrastination in both male and female participants. Previous research suggests a negative relationship between self-esteem and procrastination. There has been substantially less research examining the relationship between academic identity types (i.e., achieved, foreclosed, moratorium, and diffused academic identity) and procrastination. The current study surveyed 244 college students about their personality habits, academic identity, and self-esteem. It was hypothesized that self-esteem would moderate the relationship between achieved academic identity and procrastination. Regression analyses support this hypothesis, indicating that college students who have a well-developed sense of achieved academic identity are less likely to procrastinate in academic settings, especially for students high in self-esteem. Additionally, results suggest students who have not made a commitment to academic goals and values, are more likely to procrastinate. Theoretical implications for studying academic identity and procrastination will be discussed, along with intervention recommendations for college students.

Even though the use of silhouettes in advertising is prevalent, knowledge about their impact on consumers is surprisingly limited. In this research, I propose that the use of human silhouettes, when compared to images of attractive human models, enhances advertising effectiveness by reducing the extent to which consumers experience self-threat when viewing an ad referent. In addition, I predict this effect holds only for appearance-related products and strengthens as consumers' level of appearance-related self-esteem decreases. Six studies reported in this research provide converging evidence in support of these expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]