STUDY ON GENDER DIFFERENCES OF INTERNET USERS' PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR CHANGES BASED ON PLS-SEM
Authors: Zheng Dachuan , Liu Weixia , Lin Zhongyan , Lin Liping , Ramayah T 
Published: July 2022

Background

The rapid development of the Internet has greatly changed the external environment of people's lives. Personal lifestyles and consumption patterns have changed, resulting in differences in people's quality of life. In the process of individual change, gender differences lead to their use and dependence on the Internet and emotional changes, and then affect the differences in different dimensions of quality of life (QOL). Therefore, it is necessary to study the gender differences of Internet users' quality of life (QOL) and the strength of gender influencing factors, so as to formulate targeted suggestions to improve the quality of life of corresponding groups and improve people's emotion and behavior (QOL). A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the micro behavior of depression in various countries and regions using Chinese mobile phones.

Research Objects and Methods

This paper adopts WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and takes netizens as respondents. The questionnaire was anonymously distributed to 8 provinces (cities) including Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi. A total of 2400 independent questionnaires were collected. Partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the quality of life (QOL) of men and women from psychological dimensions, and different factors affecting their quality of life (QOL) were obtained. At the same time, Carroll Depression Scale (CRS) is designed to compare with Hamilton Depression Scale (HRSD) assessed by doctors. Its purpose is to explain the inconsistency between self-assessment and other assessment of depression. The entries of CRS involve the behavioral and physical manifestations of depression. Like HRSD, CRS is used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms rather than for diagnosis. The 52 items of CRs are mainly aimed at various symptoms corresponding to HRSD, namely psychomotor retardation and agitation, sleep disorder, weight loss and anorexia, fatigue, decreased sexual desire, inattention, lack of insight, mental and general physical anxiety, suicidal concept, etc. Some symptoms of HRSD were equally divided into 0-4 and 0-2; Correspondingly, the same symptoms of CRS also have 4 or 2 descriptions, and their degree is hierarchical. There are 52 entries in the final version of CRS, involving the first 17 items of HRSD, which are arranged randomly. You must answer “yes” or “no” to all entries in the CRS. Among them, 40 items answered “yes” to get 1 point, indicating depression; 12 items answered “no” to get 1 point, indicating depression. The total score range of the scale is 0-52. If the table is used for clinical screening of depression, 10 points or more indicates depression.

Results

the quality of life of men was higher than that of women. In the psychological dimension, male and female groups have the greatest impact on their quality of life (QOL), while the social relationship dimension has the least impact. The female group pays more attention to the psychological dimension and physiological dimension than the male group, while the influence of environmental dimension and social relationship dimension is much less than that of the male group. In the dimensions of physiology, psychology, environment and social relations, men are most concerned about the satisfaction of social support they need, but they are least concerned about their negative emotions, while women are most concerned about emotions. Support and care least about their body and appearance.

Conclusion

In the Internet environment, society should pay more attention to people's mental health, cultivate people's psychological adjustment ability, promote the all-round development of mental health from early stage, from campus to community, and then to network, and carry out publicity and advertising. In view of the limitations of the questionnaire itself, it affects the results to a certain extent. However, in a certain sense, it complements the power of the factors affecting the quality of life of Internet users in the Internet environment, and provides a certain reference for relevant institutions to formulate policies or allocate public infrastructure.

Acknowledgements

Supported by a project grant from The National Key R&D program, the Intergovernmental International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Project (EU Horizon Project-No.2017YFE0118800); Central Financial support for Local Science and Technology Development Special (Grant No.2018L3007). Foreign cooperation project of Fujian Provincial Science and Technology Plan (Grant No.2020I0040). 2021 Education Research Project of Young and Middle-aged Teachers of the Education Department of Fujian Province (Science and Technology) (JAT210317).