Women’s Health Bulletin

Women’s Health Bulletin

The Correlation Between Media Literacy and Reflective Thinking with the Reduction of Addiction Risk in Female Students: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Health

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Elahe Golrang
Qamar Kiani
Afsaneh Sobhi
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran
10.30476/whb.2024.101933.1274
Abstract
Background: Today, media literacy and reflective thinking are emphasized as an important preventive strategy against drug abuse. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore how spiritual health mediates the relationship between media literacy and reflective thinking in lowering addiction risk among female students.
Methods: In a descriptive-correlational study, 315 female students were selected using convenience sampling techniques at the University of Zanjan, Iran, from April 2021 to November 2021. They were asked to complete the Media Literacy Questionnaire (MLQ), Reflective Thinking Questionnaire (RTQ), Addiction Risk Assessment (ARA), and Spiritual Health Scale (SHS). The data was then analyzed using SEM conducted by SPSS Amos version 24.
Results: Preliminary findings indicated a significant negative correlation between addiction risk and both media literacy (r=-0.33, P=0.001) and spiritual health (r=-0.36, P=0.001), with reflective thinking acting as a critical factor in enhancing media literacy’s protective effect. Spiritual health was regarded as a mediating variable in this study. The results demonstrated that spiritual health effectively mediated the relationship between media literacy and reflective thinking, affecting addiction risk among female students (P=0.001).
Conclusions: This study revealed a significant negative correlation between addiction risk and both media literacy and spiritual health, where reflective thinking plays a crucial role in enhancing the protective effect of media literacy on addiction risk, with spiritual health acting as a mediating variable.

Highlights

Qamar Kiani: (Google Scholar)

 

 

How to Cite: Golrang E, Kiani Q, Sobhi A. The Correlation Between Media Literacy and Reflective Thinking with the Reduction of Addiction Risk in Female Students: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Health. Women. Health. Bull. 2024;11(2):75-85. doi: 10.30476/WHB.2024.101933.1274.

Keywords
Literacy
Behavior addictive
Spirituality
Reflective thinking
Female University Students
  1. Picton A, Greenfield S, Parry J. Why do students struggle in their first year of medical school? A qualitative study of student voices. BMC Med Educ. 2022;22(1):100. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03158-4. PubMed PMID: 35172820; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8848907. ##
  2. McHugh RK, Votaw VR, Sugarman DE, Greenfield SF. Sex and gender differences in substance use disorders. Clin Psychol Rev. 2018; 66:12-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.012. PubMed PMID: 29174306; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5945349. ##
  3. Becker JB, Koob GF. Sex Differences in Animal Models: Focus on Addiction. Pharmacol Rev. 2016;68(2):242–63. doi: 10.1124/pr.115.011163. PubMed PMID: 26772794; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4813426. ##
  4. Becker JB, McClellan ML, Reed BG. Sex differences, gender, and addiction. J Neurosci Res. 2017;95(1-2):136–147. doi: 10.1002/jnr.23963. PubMed PMID: 27870394; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5120656. ##
  5. Blows S, Isaacs S. Prevalence and factors associated with substance use among university students in South Africa: implications for prevention. BMC Psychol. 2022;10(1):309. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00987-2. PubMed PMID: 36522689; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9753402. ##
  6. Mozafarinia R, Assarian M, Ziaaddini A. Prevalence of Substance Abuse among Students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Addict Health. 2017;9(2):103-109. PubMed PMID: 29299213; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5742417. ##
  7. Parandeh Afshar P, Keshavarz F, Salehi M, Fakhri Moghadam R, Khajoui E, Nazari F, et al. Health Literacy and Media Literacy: Is There Any Relation? Community Health Equity Res Policy. 2022;42(2):195-201. doi: 10.1177/0272684X20972642. PubMed PMID: 33259271. ##
  8. Potter WJ. Media Literacy. 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2013. ##
  9. Chen Y, Koh HK, Kawachi I, Botticelli M, VanderWeele TJ. Religious service attendance and deaths related to drugs, alcohol, and suicide among US health care professionals. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(7):737-744. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0175. PubMed PMID: 32374360; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7203669. ##
  10. Musetti A, Corsano P. The internet is not a tool: reappraising the model for internet-addiction disorder based on the constraints and opportunities of the digital environment. Front Psychol. 2018; 9:558. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00558. PubMed PMID: 29720954; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5915628. ##
  11. Schulenberg JE, Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG, Miech RA, Patrick ME. Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2014: Volume 2, College students and adults ages 19-55. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan; 2020. Available from: http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs.html#monographs. ##
  12. Jackson KM, Janssen T, Gabrielli J. Media/Marketing Influences on Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Abuse. Curr Addict Rep. 2018;5(2):146-157. doi: 10.1007/s40429-018-0199-6. PubMed PMID: 30393590; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6208350. ##
  13. DiReda J, Gonsalvez J. The role of spirituality in treating substance use disorders. J Psychol Clin Psychiatry. 2016;6(4):00365. doi: 10.15406/jpcpy.2016.06.00365. ##
  14. Billieux J, Gay P, Rochat L, Van der Linden M. The role of urgency and its underlying psychological mechanisms in problematic behaviours. Behav Res Ther. 2010;48(11):1085–96. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.07.008. PubMed PMID: 20708729. ##
  15. Franco AR, Costa PS, Butler HA, Almeida LS. Assessment of undergraduates' real-world outcomes of critical thinking in everyday situations. Psychol Rep. 2017;120(4):707–720. doi: 10.1177/0033294117701906. PubMed PMID: 28558538. ##
  16. Liu Z, Li S, Shang S, Ren X. How Do Critical Thinking Ability and Critical Thinking Disposition Relate to the Mental Health of University Students? Front Psychol. 2021; 12:704229. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704229. PubMed PMID: 34489809; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8416899. ##
  17. Shirzad M, Taraghi N, Lafte A. The role of media literacy in health literacy and Internet addiction among female postgraduate students. J Research Health. 2019;9(3):254-260. doi: 10.29252/jrh.9.3.254. ##
  18. Miller WR. Researching the spiritual dimensions of alcohol and other drug problems. Addiction. 1998;93(7):979-90. doi: 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1998.93797912. x. PubMed PMID: 9744129. ##
  19. Koenig HG, King DE, Carson VB. Handbook of Religion and Health. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2012. ##
  20. Cheshmeh Sohrabi M, Shahin A. A Comparative Study of Media Literacy: Students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences vs. Students of University of Tehran. Global Media. 2012;7(2):27-57. Persian. ##
  21. Ashrafi-rizi H, Khorasgani ZG, Zarmehr F, Kazempour Z. A survey on rate of media literacy among Isfahan University of Medical Sciences' students using Iranian media literacy questionnaire. J Educ Health Promot. 2014; 3:49. doi: 10.4103/2277-9531.131939. PubMed PMID: 25013842; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4089109. ##
  22. Akbarinejad F, Soleymani MR, Shahrzadi L. The relationship between media literacy and health literacy among pregnant women in health centers of Isfahan. J Educ Health Promot. 2017; 6:17. doi: 10.4103/2277-9531.204749. PubMed PMID: 28546982; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5433646. ##
  23. Kember D, Leung DYP, Jones A, Loke AY, McKay J, Sinclair K, et al. Development of a questionnaire to measure the level of reflective thinking. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 2000;25(4):381-395. doi: 10.1080/713611442. ##
  24. Kember D, McKay J, Sinclair K, Wong FKY. A four-category scheme for coding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 2008;33(4):369-379. doi: 10.1080/02602930701293355. ##
  25. Leung DYP, Kember D. The relationship between approaches to learning and reflection upon practice. Educational Psychology. 2003;23(1):61-71. doi: 10.1080/01443410303221. ##
  26. Azimi E, Taghizadeh A. Validating the Persian Version of the Questionnaire to Measure the Level of Re-flective Thinking: Case Study of Teacher Education University. Research in School and Virtual Learning. 2019;26(2):43-54. doi: 10.30473/etl.2019.46589.2977. ##
  27. Anisi J, Bahadori MH, Jahanbakhsh M. Developing and validation of identifying people in risk of addiction questionnaire (I.p.R.a). Int J High Risk Behav Addict. 2013;1(4):183-91. doi: 10.5812/ijhrba.8101. PubMed PMID: 24971260; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4070132. ##
  28. Ellison CW. Spiritual well-being: Conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Psychology & Theology. 1983;11(4):330-340. ##
  29. Bufford RK, Paloutzian RF, Ellison CW. The Spiritual Well-Being Scale. Journal of Psychology and Theology. 1991;19(1):56-70. doi: 10.1177/009164719101900106. ##
  30. Genia V. Evaluation of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale in a Sample of College Students. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. 2001;11(1):25-33. doi: 10.1207/S15327582IJPR1101_03. ##
  31. Abhari MB, Fisher JW, Kheiltash A, Nojomi M. Validation of the Persian Version of Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaires. Iran J Med Sci. 2018;43(3):276-285. PubMed PMID: 29892145; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5993904. ##
  32. Feizi S, Nasiri M, Bahadori H, Hosseini Amiri M, Mirhosseini H. The relationship between spiritual well-being and happiness among healthcare students: Application of the spiritual health questionnaire for the Iranian population. Heliyon. 2020;6(11): e05448. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon. 2020.e05448. PubMed PMID: 33241140; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7672288. ##
  33. Jeong SH, Cho H, Hwang Y. Media literacy interventions: A meta-analytic review. J Commun. 2012;62(3):454-472. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01643. x. PubMed PMID: 22736807; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3377317. ##
  34. Best D, Bliuc AM, Iqbal M, Upton K, Hodgkins S. Mapping social identity change in online networks of addiction recovery. Addiction Research & Theory. 2018;26(3):163–173. doi: 10.1080/16066359.2017.1347258. ##
  35. Coughlin JW, Kalodner C. Media literacy as a prevention intervention for college women at low- or high-risk for eating disorders. Body Image. 2006;3(1):35-43. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2006.01.001. PubMed PMID: 18089207. ##
  36. Bandura A. Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1986. ##
  37. Bellini-Leite SC. Dual Process Theory: Embodied and Predictive; Symbolic and Classical. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:805386. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805386. PubMed PMID: 35386885; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8979207. ##