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Understanding the factors that influence individuals’ adherence to social distancing is critical to effective policymaking in respiratory pandemics such as COVID-19. This study aims to explore the role of social factors in relation to social distancing measures.

Stratified convenience sampling was used in this survey research, involving 450 adults residing in both rural and urban areas of Aligodarz County, Lorestan, Iran.

The findings showed that approximately 14% of participants did not adhere to any of the assessed social distancing behaviors, while only around 30% adhered to all four assessed behaviors. On average, participants reported having 5.13 (SD = 3.60) close physical contact within the 24 h prior to completing the questionnaire. Bridging social capital and gender emerged as the most frequently observed predictors across the assessed social distancing measures. Additionally, age, employment status and residential setting were identified as influential factors for some of the evaluated measures.

This study contributes to the field by highlighting that the likelihood of non-adherence to social distancing measures tends to increase among male participants, those aged above 60, employed individuals, urban residents and those with a higher level of bridging social capital.

Advancing behavioral health and primary care integration is a priority for helping clients overcome the complex health challenges impacting healthcare deserts like those in Arizona, United States of America (USA). This study aimed to explore the perspectives of people with a substance use disorder (SUD) on accessing integrated primary care (IPC) services in a rural-serving behavioral healthcare organization in Arizona.

Clients from a behavioral health facility in Arizona (n = 10) diagnosed with SUDs who also accessed IPC participated in a 45-min semi-structured interview.

The authors identified six overarching themes: (1) importance of IPC for clients being treated for SUDs, (2) client low level of awareness of IPC availability at the facility, (3) strategies to increase awareness of IPC availability at the behavioral health facility, (4) cultural practices providers should consider in care integration, (5) attitudes and perceptions about the experience of accessing IPC and (6) challenges to attending IPC appointments. The authors also identified subthemes for most of the main themes.

This is the first study in rural Arizona to identify valuable insights into the experiences of people with SUDs accessing IPC, providing a foundation for future research in the region on care integration.

To estimate the discounted money value of human lives lost (DMVHL) due to COVID-19 in Spain.

The study employs the human capital approach to estimate the DMVHL (assuming Spain's life expectancy of 83 years and a 3% discount rate) of the 20,453 human lives lost in Spain from COVID-19 as of 19 April 2020. Sensitivity analysis was conducted alternately assuming (a) 5% and 10% discount rate; and (b) global life expectancy of 72 years, and the world's highest life expectancy of 87.1 years.

The 20,453 human lives lost due to COVID-19 had a total DMVHL of Int$ 9,629,234,112, and an average of Int$ 470,798 per human life lost. Alternate re-estimation of the economic model with a 5% and 10% discount rates led to 19.8% and 47.4% reductions in the DMVHL, respectively. Re-calculation of the economic model using the global life expectancy of 72 years, while holding the discount rate constant at 3%, diminished the DMVHL by 41%. While the re-run of the same model using the world's highest life expectancy of 87.1 years instead, it increased the DMVHL by 18%.

The study omits the value of health systems inputs used in preventing, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 cases; and the negative impact of COVID-19 on the agriculture, education, finance, manufacturing, travel, tourism, and trade sectors.

There is a need to use this kind of evidence to advocate for increased investments into the strengthening of the national health system, IHR capacities, and coverage of safe water and sanitation facilities.

In Spain, no other study had attempted to estimate the net present value of human lives lost from COVID-19.

This research aims to build on the pre-existing corpus of literature through the integration of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and usage habit to more accurately capture the determinants associated with social media addiction among university students. This study seeks to delineate how usage habit and TAM may be used as predictors for addiction potential, as well as provide greater insight into current trends in social media usage across this population demographic.

A cross-sectional research design was employed to investigate the determinants of social media addiction among university students in Malaysia at the onset of their tertiary education. A self-administered survey, adapted from prior studies, was administered to a sample of 217 respondents. The hypotheses on social media addiction were subsequently tested using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach.

Usage habit was found to be a direct and strong predictor of this type of addiction, as well as all TAM variables considered in the research. Additionally, by integrating TAM with usage habit, the study revealed a comprehensive and multi-faceted understanding of social media addiction, providing an important insight into its complexity in the Malaysian context. Although several other factors have been identified as potential contributors to social media reliance and addictive behavior, it appears that usage habit is paramount in driving these addictive tendencies among university students.

This expanded model holds significant implications for the development of interventions and policies that aim to mitigate the adverse effects of social media addiction on students' educational and psychological well-being. The study illustrates the applicability of the TAM in examining addictive behaviors within emerging contexts such as the Malaysian higher education sector, thus contributing to the extant literature on the subject.

The integrated TAM and habit model is an effective predictor of social media addiction among young adults in developing countries like Malaysia. This highlights the importance of actively monitoring and controlling users' interactions with technology and media platforms, while promoting responsible usage habits. Educators can use these findings to create tailored educational programs to educate students on how to use technology responsibly and reduce their risk of becoming addicted to social media.

This study provides a unique perspective on social media addiction among university students. The combination of TAM and usage habit has the potential to shed significant light on how variables such as perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) may be associated with addictive behaviors. Additionally, by considering usage habit as an explanatory factor, this research offers a novel approach to understanding how addictions form over time.

Given the limited literature on depression as a contributing factor to compulsive social media use, the present research examines the role of perceived depressive mood (PDM) in developing compulsive social media use behavior. The authors also identify and hypothesize channels such as contingent self-esteem (CSE), social interaction anxiety (SIA) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE), which may explain how PDM affects compulsive social media use.

The research model was empirically tested with a survey of 367 Chinese university students using structural equation modeling by drawing on the escape and self-presentation lenses.

The findings indicate that PDM contributes to compulsive social media use behavior both directly and indirectly through CSE. Furthermore, the impact of CSE on compulsive social media use is mediated by the FNE, whereas SIA fails to mediate this effect.

The results can advance the authors’ knowledge of the role and process by which depressive mood impacts compulsive social media use. These findings may add insights into psychological treatment and help in, for example, developing counseling programs or coping strategies for depressed people to protect them from using social media excessively.

This research identifies the pathway mechanism between PDM and compulsive use of social media. It also increases the understanding of how CSE and social interaction deficiencies contribute to compulsive social media usage (CSMU).

Drawing from the combined theoretical approaches of the conservation of resources theory, broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and social cognitive theory, the current study examined the relationships between employee financial well-being and employee productivity via employee happiness while exploring the moderating role of gender in this mediated relationship.

Using partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling, the hypothesized model was tested employing primary data collected from banking employees.

The results showed that employee financial well-being has a significant positive effect on employee productivity and this effect was mediated by employee happiness. In addition, the results showed that this indirect effect was moderated by gender such that the relationship was more pronounced in males (versus females).

This study contributes to the nescient research on the consequences of financial well-being especially at an organizational level, with several implications for individuals, employees and organizations, while at the same time offering new insights for future investigation.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0676

This study examines the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer happiness and brand admiration as a consequence of consumer happiness. It suggests an original conceptual model that investigates perceived CSR, ethical consumption and hope as antecedents of consumer happiness.

The study followed a quantitative approach. A face-to-face survey was conducted to examine the conceptual model. Data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Hope and perceived CSR significantly influence consumer happiness. Consumer happiness is a significant antecedent of brand admiration. Although consumers' ethical position (idealism and relativism) is linked to ethical consumption, ethical consumption does not influence consumer happiness. Idealism and relativism are insignificant in moderating the perceived CSR–consumer happiness relationship.

Brands' CSR actions create a positive atmosphere and contribute to consumer happiness and brand admiration. Managers can emphasize happiness and hope in CSR programs to build stronger consumer relationships. CSR activities can be engaging for consumers regardless of their ethical consumption levels.

Although CSR, consumer happiness and their impacts on consumer–brand relationships are crucial, previous studies mainly focused on the organizational perspective and employee emotions regarding CSR. This study focused on consumer happiness in the CSR context and tested a conceptual model that revealed the significant relationships between hope, perceived CSR, consumer happiness and brand admiration. It extended previous findings by showing the direct positive impact of perceived CSR on consumer happiness.

Academic research and consumer polls often report strong consumer support for environmentally responsible products (ERPs), and yet the proportion of sales they account for is often comparatively small. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the purported reasons behind this “attitude-behaviour gap” by measuring the influence of six relatively untested factors on consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible clothing (ERC).

This study employed a consumer household sample. It also used a quantitative survey approach to collect its data and structural equation modelling to analyse it.

Of the six factors, four were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitudes: altruism, status enhancement, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and happiness.

Altruism, environmental concern, PCE and self-identity have consistently featured in other environmental contexts, but less so in the specific context of ERC. Happiness and status enhancement have yet to appear in any study relating to the purchase of ERPs.