Predictors of Acceptance and Rejection of Online Peer Support Groups as a Digital Wellbeing Tool

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source of Publication

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Abstract

© 2020, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Digital media usage can be problematic; exhibiting symptoms of behavioural addiction such as mood modification, tolerance, conflict, salience, withdrawal symptoms and relapse. Google Digital Wellbeing and Apple Screen Time are examples of an emerging family of tools to help people have a healthier and more conscious relationship with technology. Peer support groups is a known technique for behaviour change and relapse prevention. It can be facilitated online, especially with advanced social networking techniques. Elements of peer support groups are being already embedded in digital wellbeing tools, e.g. peer comparisons, peer commitments, collective usage limit-setting and family time. However, there is a lack of research about the factors influencing people acceptance and rejection of online peer support groups to enhance digital wellbeing. Previous work has qualitatively explored the acceptance and rejection factors to join and participate in such groups. In this paper, we quantitatively study the relationship between culture, personality, self-control, gender, willingness to join the groups and perception of their usefulness, on such acceptance and rejection factors. The qualitative phase included two focus groups and 16 interviews while the quantitative phase consisted of a survey (215 participants). We found a greater number of significant models to predict rejection factors than acceptance factors, although in all cases the amount of variance explained by the models was relatively small. This demonstrates the need to design and, also, introduce such technique in a contextualised and personalised style to avoid rejection and reactance.

ISBN

9783030456962

ISSN

2194-5365

Publisher

Springer

Volume

1161 AISC

First Page

95

Last Page

107

Disciplines

Computer Sciences

Keywords

Behavioural change, Digital addiction, Digital wellbeing, Online peer groups

Scopus ID

85085522154

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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