Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Department of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2019 Nov;22(11):684-691. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2019.0002.
In the last decade considerable attention has been devoted to the possible contribution of social media, and the Internet generally, to instigating adolescents' engagement in self-harm activities, which are considered the result of a combination of multidimensional variables, such as depression and anxiety. This study aimed to identify, using latent class analysis (LCA), classes homogeneous for adolescents' beliefs about peers' motivations in taking part in the recent Blue Whale Challenge Game, and to analyze the individual predictors (gender, mental health problems, self-harm and risk-taking behaviors, and problematic Internet use) of the adolescent's latent class membership. We performed an LCA using "perceived attraction" and "perceived constraint" as nominal indicators. Relative fit indices suggested the two class solution as the best measurement model: the first class was mostly composed of adolescents who attributed a central role to the adolescent (internal causality), while the second class mostly composed of adolescents who attributed a central role to the recruiters (external causality). In addition, we explored some individual characteristics to test whether they could predict adolescents' class membership. Results suggests that it is significantly more likely for adolescents with higher level of stress and risk-taking to attribute a central role to their peers' internal motivation, rather than to the recruiter, in deciding to take part in the online self-harm challenge game. Implications for preventive interventions are discussed.
在过去的十年中，人们相当关注社交媒体，以及互联网一般来说，是否会促使青少年参与自我伤害活动，这些活动被认为是多种变量综合作用的结果，如抑郁和焦虑。本研究旨在使用潜在类别分析（LCA）识别青少年对参与最近的蓝鲸挑战游戏的同伴动机的信念的同质类别，并分析青少年潜在类别归属的个体预测因素（性别、心理健康问题、自我伤害和冒险行为以及问题性互联网使用）。我们使用“感知吸引力”和“感知约束”作为名义指标进行了 LCA。相对拟合指数表明，双类解决方案是最佳测量模型：第一类主要由将青少年置于核心地位的青少年组成（内部因果关系），而第二类主要由将招募者置于核心地位的青少年组成（外部因果关系）。此外，我们还探讨了一些个体特征，以检验它们是否可以预测青少年的类别归属。结果表明，对于压力和冒险水平较高的青少年来说，他们更有可能将同伴的内在动机归因于自己，而不是将招募者归因于自己，从而决定参与在线自我伤害挑战游戏。讨论了预防干预的意义。
