Social Sciences

Abstract: Commercial VR games may offer accessible material for psychological research and intervention that may enhance specific psychological capacities, but selecting such games remains challenging. This project examined the feasibility of a procedure for identifying concrete VR experience characteristics that may enhance two psychological constructs (here, cognitive flexibility and tolerance of ambiguity) and using them to assess the relevance of a commercial VR game. In Study 1, experts in cognitive flexibility (N = 6) and tolerance of ambiguity (N = 7) evaluated the theoretical relevance of the proposed characteristics. In Study 2, young adults (N = 55, M_age = 23.17; SD_age = 3.45) played Escape Simulator in VR, rated the presence of these characteristics, and completed pre–post measures of both capacities. Several self-reported indicators of cognitive flexibility and tolerance of ambiguity increased after gameplay (d_z = .27–.57), and cognitive flexibility performance (operationalized as switch cost) decreased (d_z = .73). After Bonferroni correction, three correlations with self-reported change scores remained significant, comprising two positive and one negative association. None of the characteristics was associated with change in task-switching performance, and no associations with user-experience outcomes remained significant after correction. The findings show that psychologically relevant VR experience characteristics can be articulated, evaluated by experts, and assessed during gameplay, but their links to psychological outcomes remain limited. This feasibility study identifies aspects requiring refinement and provides an initial basis for a broader framework for screening commercial VR games for use in psychological purposes.

Abstract: Disability language use shifts with changing social attitudes. While Person-First Language (PFL) emphasizes humanity, Identity-First Language (IFL) depicts disability as integral to one’s identity. This study of 238 participants aged 18-30 investigated language preferences and whether language type influences perceptions of identity centrality. Participants rated the importance of identity markers to a PFL- or IFL-framed subject and indicated whether PFL or IFL are preferable in conversation. Results show that perceptions are influenced by identity type (i.e., disability versus non-disability), but not by whether identity is framed with PFL or IFL. PFL is preferred for most disabilities, except for sensory disabilities, for which, along with non-disability-related identities (e.g., race), IFL is preferred. These findings suggest that, despite current social trends favouring PFL, PFL versus IFL framing may have little effect on perceptions of people with disability. Dispositional factors were not found to be strong predictors of language preference, suggesting that disability language and the conceptualization of disability is primarily shaped by socially acquired ideals. Thus, considering the preferences and experiences of disability communities when referencing disability may foster more meaningful change in how disability is conceptualized.

Abstract: This scoping review examines how leadership shapes employees' mental health in disruptive, uncertain organizational contexts between 2020 and 2025. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search across Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO yielded 43 eligible sources (30 empirical, 13 conceptual/theoretical). Data were extracted and synthesized through critical interpretive synthesis. Findings indicate that transformational, ethical, servant, inclusive, and health-oriented leadership protect well-being by fostering psychological safety, trust, and psychological capital. Conversely, authoritarian, toxic, destructive, and laissez-faire leadership exacerbate burnout, psychological distress, organizational silence, and turnover intentions. However, protective leadership effects are conditional, weakening when leaders experience emotional overload or resource depletion. Psychological safety, trust, and psychological capital serve as primary explanatory mechanisms linking leadership behaviors with emotional exhaustion and resilience. Synthesizing these insights, this review proposes a dynamic emotional regulation framework of leadership under disruption. Rather than viewing leadership through static styles, the framework conceptualizes it as a relational, context-sensitive process capable of safeguarding or eroding occupational mental health.

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Suicidal ideation affects a considerable proportion of college students, and protective factors developed during childhood may mitigate it. We examined the relationship between benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) and the frequency of suicidal ideation among Peruvian college students, as well as the moderating role of age, sex, and marital status. Methods: A total of 483 students from public and private universities in Peru (74.7% women; mean age 22.10 years) participated in the study and completed the BCEs scale and the Spanish version of the Suicide Ideation Frequency Inventory. Using a cross-sectional correlational-explanatory design, three moderation models were estimated via multiple linear regression. Results: EIBs were inversely and significantly associated with suicidal ideation (r = −.361, p < .001). Age moderated this relationship (ΔR² = .012, p = .026): the protective association persisted up to age 35 and faded in the group aged 36 and older. Neither sex nor marital status moderated the relationship, and the models explained between 14% and 20% of the variance. Conclusions: The findings support higher education as a protective factor that operates independently of sex and current relationship status and suggest incorporating its assessment into university mental health protocols, with a priority focus on emerging adulthood.

Abstract: Background: Aggressive behavior among university students is an emerging concern, and social media use has been suggested as a contributing factor. However, evidence on different dimensions of aggression remains limited. This study aimed to assess the association between social media use and multiple dimensions of aggressive behavior (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility) among university students in Nepal.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 230 students. A structured questionnaire and the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Chi-Square tests, and multiple linear regression analysis were conducted to examine associations and identify predictors of aggression. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. Results: Higher social media use was significantly associated with increased levels of physical aggression (χ² = 14.597, p < .001) and verbal aggression (χ² = 6.187, p = .013). Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant model (F = 4.929, p < .001) explaining 10.4% of the variance in social media use (R² = 0.104). Male participants reported significantly lower social media use than females (β = -0.157, p = .011). Higher levels of physical aggression (β = 0.222, p < .001) and hostility (β = 0.024, p = .002) were associated with increased social media use. Conclusion: Increased social media use is associated with higher levels of physical and verbal aggression among university students. Students with higher levels of physical aggression and hostility tend to use social media more, while male students report lower social media use than female students. These findings highlight the role of behavioral traits and gender in social media use; however, causality cannot be inferred because of the cross-sectional design, and longitudinal studies are needed.

Abstract: Adolescent gender dysphoria is commonly understood through competing medical, de-velopmental, and sociocultural explanatory frameworks. Less attention is given to the meanings that gender identity acquires as it becomes integrated into the developing per-sonality. This interpretive case study examines that process in a transgender declaring ad-olescent. The formulation does not claim to explain the origin of gender dysphoria or pre-dict its outcome. It asks how the transgender declaration became psychologically elaborat-ed through embodiment, family relationships, shame, competence, autonomy, and emerg-ing desire. The treatment revealed a recurrent opposition between agency and dependence, conceptualized heuristically as a pursuit of psychological sovereignty: the wish to become the recognized author of one’s body, mind, values, and future. Therapy to date has not al-tered the transgender identification but was associated with broader thematic range, firmer interpersonal boundaries, greater tolerance of ambivalence, and an emerging capacity to use the therapist without either idealizing or submitting to her. A vignette involving attrac-tion to a fictional male character illustrates the delayed emergence of erotic object choice without resolving future sexual orientation. This case supports an exploratory psychody-namic stance that respects declared identity while preserving developmental openness.

Abstract: Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct consistently associated with antisocial and violent behavior; however, its affective-interpersonal and behavioral components may contribute differently to distinct forms of violent offending. The present study investigated variations in psychopathy dimensions according to the type of violent offense and age, as well as the predictive role of agreeableness and conscientiousness in a sample of incarcerated individuals convicted of violent crimes. The sample comprised 500 incarcerated individuals from six Romanian prisons (M age = 38.49 years, SD = 10.39), assessed using the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale–III (SRP-III), the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), and the Agreeableness and Conscientiousness dimensions of the Big Five personality model. Data were analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analyses, and hierarchical linear regression. The results revealed significant differences in psychopathy levels according to the type of violent offense (SRP-III: F(2, 484) = 12.13, p < .001, η² = .048), with higher psychopathy scores observed among individuals convicted of physical violence offenses. Psychopathy decreased significantly with age, particularly in its behavioral dimension. Agreeableness and conscientiousness emerged as significant negative predictors of psychopathy (β = −.179, p < .001, and β = −.175, p = .001, respectively), accounting for an additional 10% of the explained variance. These findings support a dimensional conceptualization of psychopathy and highlight the role of personality traits in the psychological profile of violent offenders. The results have important implications for violence risk assessment and the development of individualized intervention strategies within correctional settings, although the modest proportion of variance explained (13%) and the predominantly small effect sizes observed indicate that these findings should be considered preliminary rather than a basis for standalone clinical decision-making.

Abstract: Conventional models of emotional regulation center on the individual mind, training attention inward toward thoughts, sensations, and self-referential appraisal. Yet sustained self-referential processing is also a hallmark of the conditions such approaches aim to treat, including rumination, anxious self-monitoring, and narcissistic self-inflation. This article argues that self-transcendence, the shift of attention and motivation away from the self toward another person, a cause, or the transcendent, deserves formal status as a therapeutic target in its own right. I first outline self-transcendence's conceptual and neurobiological basis as a controllable attenuation of self-referential processing. I then argue, drawing on the neurobiology of autobiographical memory and narrative identity, that this same attenuation interfaces directly with the machinery that constructs and maintains the self-focused, ego-bound attention characteristic of rumination, and that, because self-defining memories are reconsolidated rather than fixed each time they are retrieved, self-transcendent states occasioned during therapeutic memory work may offer a route to rewriting identity-relevant narrative material, not merely managing momentary mood. I review converging evidence linking self-transcendent states, such as awe, compassion, meaning-seeking, and religious practice, to prosocial behavior, emotion regulation, and well-being, and sketch a therapeutic model built on structured awe elicitation, compassion training, and meaning-focused reflection. I close by addressing the ethical tension between instrumentalizing spirituality and secular clinical exclusion, and call for controlled, longitudinal research testing self-transcendence as a mediator, not merely a correlate, of therapeutic change.

Abstract: Young people transitioning out of foster care may face interconnected challenges involving health, education, employment, housing, income and continuity of support. Yet care leavers also demonstrate agency and positive adaptation when dependable relationships, practical resources and responsive services remain available. This critical narrative review examines how foster-family relationships, individual agency, professional support and material conditions interact during the transition from care. The review draws on social-ecological resilience, relational permanence and the social determinants of health to critique approaches that position successful ageing out primarily as an achievement of individual self-reliance. The literature was synthesised into three integrated themes: (1) relational continuity, belonging and foster-family well-being; (2) supported agency, health and developmental preparation; and (3) coordinated services and enabling material conditions. On this basis, the paper proposes a Relational Continuity and Supported Transition Framework. The framework positions health, well-being and positive adaptation as shared outcomes produced through reciprocal interactions between care leavers, supportive relationships, service systems and structural resources. Implications are presented for foster-family preparation, youth-led transition planning, service coordination, social protection and future research, with particular attention to underrepresented African contexts.

Abstract: Migration is an inevitable aspect of human existence, but youth attitudes toward irregular migration have recently become a growing concern among policymakers, researchers, and government officials in developing countries like Nigeria, where challenging living conditions and lack of opportunities to achieve an individual’s potential often influence migration-related attitudes. While previous studies have largely focused on economic and structural factors, limited research attention has been given to the influence of psychological parameters on attitudes toward irregular migration. Thus, this study examined the impact of life satisfaction and hopelessness on attitudes toward irregular migration among Nigerian young adults, with risk-taking propensity as a moderator. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 564 undergraduates from federal, state, and private universities in Nigeria, and four standardized psychological instruments, which include: Satisfaction With Life Scale, Attitudes Toward Unauthorized Migration Scale, General Risk-Taking Propensity Scale (GRiPS), and Hopelessness Scale, were used for data collection. The collected data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM, version 3.0). The results showed that life satisfaction had a significant negative influence on attitudes toward irregular migration. The result further indicates that hopelessness had a significant positive effect on attitudes toward irregular migration. Again, risk-taking propensity also had a positive effect on migration attitudes and equally served as a positive moderator in the relationship between hopelessness and attitudes toward irregular migration among young adults. Hence, the findings highlight the role of these psychological parameters as important promoters of youths’ attitudes toward irregular migration in a developing country like Nigeria.

Abstract: Racial stigma reflects internalized beliefs about Black people that can shape identity development and psychological wellbeing. Research on the impact of daily racial dis-crimination on Black girls’ development of racial stigma beliefs is scarce. The current study examined Black girls (Mage = 14, N = 118) reports of racial discrimination experiences and the association on racial stigma beliefs (i.e., endorsing negative stereotypes about Black Americans). The protective role of racial socialization strategies was also examined. Using a hierarchical regression analysis, the findings revealed that higher levels of racial discrimination was associated with higher levels of racial stigma. Spiritual and religious coping and racial awareness teaching were associated with lower levels of racial stigma. The interaction effects indicated that Black girls who reported higher levels of daily racial discrimination and lower levels of cultural pride reinforcement were more likely to endorse negative stereotypes about Black people.

Abstract: Within the first year of life, infants can perceptually discriminate people by race. However, beyond perceptual discrimination, it remains unclear whether infants use race to guide their social behaviors, such as whether they approach or withdraw from people of different races. This question is particularly understudied during toddlerhood (between 1 and 2 years of age), before children can reliably report racial attitudes around 3 to 4 years of age. The present study examined whether 12- to 25-month-old U.S. toddlers (N = 118) show greater wariness toward strangers from unfamiliar than familiar racial groups in a within-subject design to determine whether toddlers use a person’s race to guide their social behaviors. Toddlers did not exhibit significantly greater wariness toward strangers from unfamiliar than familiar racial groups, and this pattern was not moderated by their racial backgrounds, temperament, or racial diversity of their social networks or neighborhoods. These findings suggest that race may not function as a salient cue for guiding toddlers’ social responses during the second year of life. More broadly, these findings contribute to growing evidence that early perceptual sensitivity to race does not necessarily entail race-based biases in evaluations or behaviors in early childhood.

Abstract: Purpose: Occupational stress remains one of the most significant psychosocial challenges affecting employee well-being and organizational effectiveness worldwide. Although extensive research has examined the detrimental effects of workplace stress, less attention has been devoted to the protective role of positive emotional experiences. Drawing upon Positive Psychology and Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory, the present study investigates the contribution of positive emotions to occupational stress coping within a large Greek workforce sample. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,614 Greek employees from both public and private sector organizations. Participants completed validated measures assessing occupational stress, positive emotions, negative emotions, dispositional optimism, and demographic and occupational characteristics. Correlational analyses, analysis of variance, partial correlations, and advanced explanatory modeling approaches were employed to examine the relationships between positive emotional experiences and occupational stress. Findings: Results demonstrated a significant negative association between positive emotions and occupational stress (r = -.39, p < .001). The ratio of positive to negative emotions emerged as an even stronger predictor of stress reduction (r = -.53, p < .001). Employees experiencing high levels of positive emotions reported substantially lower stress scores compared with employees experiencing predominantly negative emotional states. Furthermore, the observed relationships remained statistically significant after controlling for eleven demographic, occupational, and health-related variables. Dispositional optimism emerged as the most influential moderating factor. Originality: The study contributes to the occupational stress literature by highlighting the central role of positive emotional experiences as psychological resources that facilitate stress coping and resilience. The findings support contemporary positive psychology models suggesting that flourishing employees are better equipped to manage occupational demands. Practical Implications: Organizations may reduce occupational stress through interventions aimed at strengthening positive emotions, psychological resilience, optimism, and employee well-being.

Abstract: Background: Cyber intimate partner violence (C-IPV) refers to abusive and controlling behaviors enacted through digital technologies toward a current or former intimate partner. Previous research suggests that pathological narcissism may be associated with the perpetration of C-IPV. Methods: This study examined the psychometric prop-erties of the Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory (B-PNI), estimated the prevalence of C-IPV perpetration, and explored its association with pathological narcissism among emerging adults. The sample comprised 371 Portuguese participants aged 18–25 years (M = 21.52, SD = 1.97), of whom 78.7% were female. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed two-factor structure of the B-PNI (CFI = .982, TLI = .965, RMSEA = .076). The instrument demonstrated satisfactory reliability and construct validity. Overall, 58.7% of participants reported perpetrating at least one act of C-IPV. Prevalence rates were 36.9% for online control, 37.2% for online jealousy, and 18.9% for online intrusive behaviors. Positive and significant associations were found between C-IPV perpetration and both vulnerable and grandiose narcissistic dimen-sions. Conclusions: The findings support the adequacy of the B-PNI for use among Portuguese emerging adults and highlight pathological narcissism as a relevant per-sonality-related factor associated with cyber intimate partner violence perpetration, reinforcing the importance of personality-focused prevention and intervention strategies.

Abstract: Background: Negative workplace gossip is a common interpersonal phenomenon that may adversely affect employee well-being, workplace relationships, and organizational outcomes. Despite its importance, available measures are limited. Objective: To develop and validate the Negative Workplace Gossip Thermometer (NEWGOT), a brief single-item visual analogue instrument for assessing perceived negative workplace gossip. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted between January and April 2026 among 432 employees working in the public and private sectors in Greece. The NEWGOT was developed as a single-item thermometer ranging from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating more frequent experiences of being the target of negative workplace gossip during the previous six months. Concurrent validity was assessed through correlations with the Perceived Negative Workplace Gossip Scale (PNWGS), Workplace Incivility Scale, Quiet Quitting Scale, Single-Item Burnout Measure, Patient Health Questionnaire-4, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-3. Test-retest reliability was evaluated in a subsample of 50 employees using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was conducted to identify an optimal cut-off score for the NEWGOT. Results: The NEWGOT demonstrated strong concurrent validity, exhibiting a high positive correlation with the PNWGS (r = 0.78, p < 0.001) and moderate positive correlations with workplace incivility (r = 0.62, p < 0.001), anxiety and depression symptoms (r = 0.32, p < 0.001), job burnout (r = 0.23, p < 0.001), and quiet quitting (r = 0.21, p < 0.001). Furthermore, NEWGOT scores were negatively correlated with work engagement (r = −0.24, p < 0.001). Test-retest reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.986, 95% confidence interval = 0.975-0.992, p < 0.001). ROC analysis identified a score of ≥3 as the optimal cut-off point for elevated levels of perceived negative workplace gossip, yielding the highest Youden index (0.267) and an area under the curve of 0.659. Conclusions: The NEWGOT is a valid, reliable, and easy-to-administer instrument for assessing perceived negative workplace gossip. Its brevity and strong psychometric properties make it a promising screening tool for organizational research, occupational health practice, and workplace well-being initiatives.

Abstract: Population-based evidence on gambling-related harm remains scarce in Central Asia, and Kazakhstan has lacked a nationally validated bilingual screening instrument. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the bilingual (Kazakh–Russian) Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), estimated the national distribution of gambling-related harm, and identified behavioral and socio-demographic correlates of elevated gambling risk. A stratified sample of 1,015 adults aged 18–60 years from all 17 regions and three major cities of Kazakhstan completed standardized questionnaires in Kazakh or Russian. The PGSI was assessed using categorical and continuous measures, examining internal consistency, construct validity, item-level response distributions, and multivariable logistic regression. The bilingual PGSI demonstrated good psychometric performance, including satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.846) and a unidimensional factor structure explaining 45.9% of variance. Overall, 27.1% of respondents met the screening threshold for elevated gambling risk (PGSI ≥ 8). Elevated scores primarily reflected cumulative moderate problems across domains rather than frequent severe responses. Gambling expenditure and frequency remained the strongest independent correlates of elevated risk, while demographic characteristics showed limited associations. These findings provide the first nationally representative evidence on gambling-related harm in Kazakhstan and support the bilingual PGSI for population screening, surveillance, and targeted prevention strategies.

Abstract: Artificial systems are validated against self-reports, expressions, behaviours, clinician judgements, and institutional records. Once an inference about mental life guides a response or decision, those criteria may become descendants of the inference. Agreement can then increase because the model predicted the target, changed the target, altered self-interpretation or expression, selected what became observable, or reshaped the criterion-generation process. I call this evaluation problem post-deployment criterion endogeneity.Mental AI denotes systems in which this problem can arise: systems that use an inference about mental life, operationally incorporate it into a response or decision, and create an inference-indexed, construct-relevant consequence path. This category connects emotion recognition, personality scoring, machine theory of mind, conversational agents, digital mental health, educational analytics, and workplace assessment while retaining important domain and mechanism differences.The framework separates four outcome layers: latent mental state; self-interpretation and report; expressive–behavioural evidence; and social or institutional allocation. It then distinguishes external criteria, whose measurement meaning does not constitutively depend on uptake of a classification, from reflexive criteria partly produced through self-ascription or norm-governed expression. This distinction converts a broad concern about AI influence into an identifiable evaluation problem.Drawing on affective computing, performative prediction, response shift, measurement reactivity, looping effects, AI-mediated selfhood, and bidirectional belief amplification, the article develops ten falsifiable propositions and four decisive experiments. It predicts when ambiguity, persistence, operational authority, and contestability will alter recursive effects. Affective Sovereignty follows as a procedural design implication: preserve refusal, delay, override, and contestation while keeping external evidence available to challenge self-interpretation.

Abstract: The Concealed Information Test (CIT) detects whether an individual recognizes crime-relevant information, and eye tracking has been proposed as a non-invasive method for detecting this recognition. It remains unclear, however, whether individuals who are motivated to conceal their knowledge can strategically modulate their gaze and thereby undermine the test validity. We developed a novel free-viewing, parallel-presentation eye-movement-based CIT and administered it to 75 participants randomly assigned to three groups: Innocent, Informed Innocent, and Guilty. For each participant, twelve eye-tracking measures were calculated as differential (crime-relevant minus control) scores and analyzed using four supervised classifiers under a participant-wise, leave-two-out cross-validation, with accuracy reported at both the trial and participant levels. Cumulative dwell- and duration-based measures, together with glance and fixation counts, carried most of the discriminative signal. The classification model demonstrated high accuracy when distinguishing between the naive and knowledgeable but non-concealing individuals, as well as between knowledgeable non-concealing individuals and culpable individuals. However, classification performance fell to chance-level probability when distinguishing naive and culpable individuals. Thus, participants who were motivated to avoid detection markedly reduced their distinctive eye-movement signature with voluntary gaze control, becoming indistinguishable from truly naive individuals. We discuss methodological implications for designing eye-movement-based CITs that exhibit greater resilience against strategic, voluntary gaze modulation.

Abstract: Introduction. The development and adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies is rapidly expanding, but its integration into psychological services depends on clinician acceptance. Little empirical work has examined how identity-related threat shapes psychology professionals’ adoption intentions of GenAI. The present research tested an extended technology acceptance model (TAM), with the addition of personal and professional identity threats, to explain psychology professionals’ adoption intentions of GenAI technologies for clinically relevant usage. Methods. 201 UK psychology professionals completed a cross-sectional online survey. Three sequential structural equation models were tested, incorporating perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and social influence as core predictors, with threats to professional capabilities and self-threat added as extensions. Two open-ended qualitative questions were analysed using content analysis to provide broader contextual insight into current use and barriers to adoption. Results. All models demonstrated acceptable fit (CFI = .936–.938; RMSEA = .071–.072). Perceived usefulness emerged as the strongest correlate of adoption intention across all models (β =.67-.69). Threats to professional capabilities and self-threat were each independently and reliably negatively associated with adoption intention above and beyond core TAM predictors (β = −.20 and β = −.16 respectively). Social influence exerted a reliable indirect effect on behavioural intention through perceived usefulness across all models, as did perceived ease of use in the two models incorporating identity threat. Content analysis identified ethical concerns, lack of trust, and professional identity threats as prominent barriers to adoption. Discussion. Findings highlight the importance of considering both classic TAM factors and identity-related concerns when developing and implementing GenAI into psychological services.

Abstract:

Background/Objectives: Digital technologies are increasingly embedded in children’s everyday lives, yet problematic Internet use (PIU) remains conceptually heterogeneous and has been studied mainly in adolescents. This narrative review aimed to synthesize evidence on the conceptualization and manifestations of PIU among primary school children and identify associated risk and protective factors from a socioecological perspective. Methods: This narrative review used a structured literature search informed by an adapted PECOS framework. APA PsycInfo, Web of Science Core Collection, and PubMed were searched for quantitative empirical studies published between 2021 and 2026 involving primary school populations. Of the 232 records identified, 18 studies were included and narratively synthesized. Results: The studies used heterogeneous terminology, ranging from general or risky Internet use to problematic smartphone and video game use, Internet addiction, and Internet gaming disorder. Most employed observational, predominantly cross-sectional, designs. Higher levels or a greater likelihood of problematic use was associated with family conflict, insecure attachment, maladaptive parenting practices, parental technology dependence, socioemotional difficulties, externalizing problems, peer victimization, deviant peer affiliation, and intensive recreational digital use. Positive parent–child relationships, parental supervision, authoritative parenting, parental digital competence, positive peer communication, resilience, traditional games, and a positive school climate were associated with lower levels or a lower likelihood of problematic use. Evidence concerning school and community factors was limited. Conclusions: PIU is best understood as an umbrella construct shaped by interacting individual and contextual factors. Prevention should adopt a socioecological and developmentally appropriate approach, while future research should employ longitudinal designs and more standardized terminology and validated assessment instruments.