Xiangping Liu

This study used Weibo microblog records to analyze and compare the changes in the well-being and mobility of people in China in 2020 (when the COVID-19 outbreak was announced) and 2021 (when the vaccine was announced). Python software's crawling program was used to randomly select 477 users (45.28% of whom were male) and their 16,645 records from January 2020 to April 2021. The word frequency in each microblog text was conceptually defined as a variable, such as self-reference, emotion, and mobility words. Analysis of Weibo user behavior over a year in 2020 and 4 months in 2021 revealed that self-representation (when talking about “I”) had a lower positive affect and higher negative affect at later times than at earlier times. When users discussed “we,” their group identity displayed lower positive affect and more motion behaviors (e.g., shopping and walking outside). However, in 2021, their group identity had a higher positive affect and more motion behaviors, and their self-representation had a lower positive affect and fewer motion behaviors. The implications, limitations, and potential future research are discussed.

In both the West and East, social withdrawal, manifested as solitude and shyness, has distinct developmental implications for adolescent mental health. Representative countries in the West (e.g., North America and Europe) and East (e.g., China) were selected to compare cultural differences. This literature review aims to discuss how adolescents experience solitude and shyness differently in North America, Europe, and China from a developmental perspective, and adopts a cross-cultural perspective to explain the distinct outcomes of adolescent social withdrawal. Furthermore, humanistic perspectives are discussed to link adolescent development and humanism in terms of previous empirical evidence and counseling practices. In North America and Europe, solitude has both adaptive and harmful effects on adolescents’ mental health. However, solitude in China and shyness in both cultural settings tend to adversely affect adolescent mental health. These findings from previous studies correspond to developmental perspectives in terms of mental health, personal adaptation, and self-development during adolescence. The strengths, weaknesses, and implications of this literature review are also discussed.

This study explored differences (positive or negative) in self–other representations among Chinese social networking (Weibo) users with high or low popularity. Through the crawling program of Python software, 413 Weibo users (180 male, 43.58%) with their 5,823 microblog updates were selected as participants. The variables in this study (i.e., self-representation, other representation, relational self, and positive and negative representations) used the word frequency of the corresponding words in the microblog text as an indicator. Results indicated that for high-popularity users and low-popularity users, their expressions of self-representation and relational self were both associated with the expressions of positive emotions in general. Specifically, the association between self-representation and positive emotions was higher among low-popularity users than high-popularity users, whereas the association between relational self and positive emotions was higher in high-popularity users than low-popularity users. Practical implications and future directions of this study's findings are discussed.

Older adults are more likely to live alone and engage in solitary activities than young adults, leading to decrement in their well‐being. However, researchers have discovered beneficial implications of solitude, and some of them even have established that the negative and positive effects of solitude coexist. The study's purposes are to investigate the relationship between solitude and well‐being among older adults and to further examine the inter‐individual differences in this relationship. In the database of Google Scholar, the systematic review methods are used and 17 articles meet the inclusion criteria. The study concludes that older adults experience solitude both negatively and positively; the complex relationship between solitude and well‐being can be better understood and explained by inter‐individual differences based on intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cultural factors. This systematic review adopts a perspective that spans individual and social/cultural levels and helps grasp the link between solitude and well‐being in older adults. Based on this review, the researcher can develop appropriate interventions to help older people maximize the benefits of solitude while minimizing the drawbacks to further achieve a higher quality of life.

This study aimed to explore the relationships among early adolescents’ perceived parental psychological control/autonomy support, self‐trouble, and internalizing problems as well as the potential gender differences in these relationships. Multiple‐group path analysis was performed on the data collected from 1,089 adolescents in Beijing junior high schools. Results revealed that parental psychological control (autonomy support) was associated with adolescents’ more (fewer) internalizing problems, and self‐trouble acted as a mediator in these two relationships. Moreover, only the indirect relationship between parental autonomy support and internalizing problems via self‐trouble was moderated by gender, with girls showing a little stronger indirect effect than boys, and specifically, it was the relationship between autonomy support and self‐trouble that existed gender differences, with girls showing higher coefficient than boys. The relationship between parental psychological control/autonomy support and early adolescents’ internalizing problems was discussed with regard to self‐trouble and gender differences.

This study aims to explore the relationships among social anxiety, social networking sites (SNS) addiction, and SNS addiction tendency and further to examine the moderating role of state attachment anxiety and state attachment avoidance. A sample of Chinese young adults ( N = 437, M_age = 24.21 ± 3.25, 129 males) participated in this study, the data were collected through self-reports. Results revealed that participants’ social anxiety was positively associated with SNS addiction and SNS addiction tendency. State attachment anxiety moderated these two relationships after controlling gender, age, and state attachment avoidance, while state attachment avoidance showed no significant moderating effect. Specifically, the positive relationships between social anxiety and SNS addiction (tendency) were restricted to individuals with low state attachment anxiety. While for individuals with high state attachment anxiety, social anxiety was no longer associated with SNS addiction or SNS addiction tendency. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of state attachment’s moderating role in terms of the relationships between social anxiety and SNS addiction (tendency).