This study aimed to explore the indirect effects of appearance-related anxiety (ARA) on Instagram addiction (IA) through sequential mediators, namely social media activity intensity (SMAI) and Instagram feed dependency (IFD). The study also aimed to provide theoretical explanations for the observed relationships and contribute to the understanding of the complex interplay between appearance-related concerns, social media usage, and addictive behaviors in the context of IA. A sample of 306 participants was used for the analysis. The results of the sequential mediation analysis (SMA) revealed several important findings. Firstly, the mediation model demonstrated that SMAI mediated the relationship between ARA and IA. However, there was no direct relationship observed between ARA and SMAI. Secondly, the analysis showed that IFD acted as a second mediator in the relationship between ARA and IA. Both ARA and SMAI had significant direct effects on IA, indicating their individual contributions to addictive behaviors. Furthermore, the total effect model confirmed a positive relationship between ARA and IA. This finding suggests that ARA has a direct influence on the development of IA. The examination of indirect effects revealed that ARA indirectly influenced IA through the sequential mediators of SMAI, IFD, and ultimately IA itself. The completely standardized indirect effect of ARA on IA through these mediators was found to be significant. Overall, this study provides evidence for the indirect effects of ARA on IA and highlights the mediating roles of SMAI and IFD. These findings contribute to our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the complex relationship between appearance-related concerns, social media usage, and the development of IA.

Sports competition is one of the important contents and forms of sports activities and physical education. It plays a full range of valuable functions in promoting the all-round development of college students. Specifically, it can better help college students enjoy fun, enhance their physique, and improve their physical fitness during physical exercise. Personality and tempering the will. Countries around the world attach great importance to youth sports competitions, and use national strategies as the top-level design and sports events as activity carriers to create a series of youth sports competitions such as graded competitions, championships, and campus events, providing more opportunities for young people to watch and participate in sports. Opportunities and platforms for competition. College student sports competitions are an important part of youth sports competitions and shoulder multiple missions such as physical health promotion, competitive talent training, and sports industry development. In recent years, the development of college sports competitions around the world has achieved remarkable results, and the scale and quality of Chinese college sports competitions have also been significantly improved. However, compared with developed countries, overall, there is still a weak awareness of participation, poor competition experience, and competitive competition. Prominent problems such as low levels and high activity withdrawal rates have, to a certain extent, restricted the high-quality development of college student sports competitions. In fact, it is not as easy as imagined for college students to participate in sports competitions regularly for a long time. In addition to requiring college students to possess certain basic conditions such as time, energy, and skills, it also requires support and promotion from all walks of life, especially It is inseparable from the material, spiritual and technical support provided by family, friends, coaches and other important groups. Just as the social ecological model believes that individual physical activity behavior is closely related to social support at the interpersonal level, especially social support from important groups such as family and friends has a positive impact on individual physical activity behavior. At the same time, although social support is very important, not all social support received can promote college students to form good sports competition behaviors. Self-determination theory emphasizes that only effective social support can regulate and optimize individual sports motivation by meeting the individual’s basic psychological needs, and ultimately promote the formation of positive, long-term sports behavior. However, most of the current sports academic circles continue the research context of traditional college student sports management, focusing on the contemporary value, practical issues, system construction, etc. of college student sports competitions. They are more subjective qualitative theoretical research and relatively lack the influence of social support. Empirical research on the sports competition behavior of college students, so that the internal mechanism of social support affecting the sports competition behavior of college students is not clear enough and understood. Therefore, from the perspective of social ecology, this study explores the internal mechanism of social support affecting college students’ sports competition behavior, in order to provide certain theoretical reference for improving the level of college students’ sports competition behavior.

This study empirically examines the complex relationship between materialism and economic motivation, proposing an inverted U-shaped relationship. The research analyzes three dimensions of materialism: happiness pursuit, social recognition, and uniqueness, and their impact on economic motivation. The findings suggest that materialism, when balanced, positively influences economic motivation without causing adverse effects. This relationship remains consistent across demographic characteristics and life satisfaction levels, challenging the traditional negative view of materialism. The implications of these findings extend to marketing strategies, policy design, and infrastructure development, offering actionable insights for real-world contexts. This research underscores the importance of balancing materialistic values to foster sustainable economic growth and well-being.

The main objective of the study is to discuss the application of a participatory approach that involves the community of a small rural area in Italy to develop and maintain a sustainable local food system based on a very ancient and high-quality typical local bean. The efficacy of the approach in terms of the active involvement of local actors (farming communities, local administration, social associations, and civil society) and knowledge transfer for preserving the local food culture has been demonstrated. Possible improvements to the approach through digital technologies for stimulating the effective engagement of teenagers have also been discussed.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the exogenous variables (administrative support, career placement & employability, academic staff support, institutional factors, and information systems) as service delivery quality dimensions with satisfaction and moderating variable (academic and social integration) between endogenous variables (satisfaction and retention) among undergraduate students from Malaysian private higher education institutions. In order to accomplish the objectives proposed with hypotheses, a model reflecting the relationship between service delivery quality dimensions and satisfaction moderated by academic and social integration towards retention is applied. This empirical study focused on probability-stratified random sampling with a final sample size of 309 students. This study achieved statistically significant positive results by emphasizing academic and social integration as a moderating variable to achieve student retention by linking Perceived Performance Theory and Tinto’s Interactionist Theory from satisfaction to retention. Evaluation of the structural model on the coefficient of determination for the model’s predictive accuracy in this study produced an R² = 0.85 for satisfaction, suggesting nearly 85% of the variance in endogenous latent construct satisfaction is explained by all the service delivery quality dimensions linked to it. As for retention produced R² = 0.74, suggesting nearly 74% of the variance in endogenous latent construct retention is explained by all the service delivery quality dimensions linked together with satisfaction and academic and social integration as moderator. The model has a substantial effect with 0.76 in the Goodness-of-Fit index, indicating that the model has better explaining power.

In the contemporary landscape characterized by technological advancements and a progressive economic environment, the utilization of currency has undergone a paradigm shift. Despite the growing prevalence of digital currency, its adoption among the Vietnamese population faces several challenges, including limited financial literacy, concerns over security, and resistance to change from traditional cash-based transactions. This research aims to identify these challenges and propose solutions to encourage the widespread use of digital currency in Vietnam. This research adopts a quantitative approach, utilizing Likert scale questionnaires, with a dataset of 330 records. The interrelationships among variables are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis results substantiate the viability of the research model, confirming the hypotheses. The findings demonstrate a positive relationship and the significance impact of factors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived trust (PT), social influence (SI), openness to innovation (OI), and financial knowledge (FK) to intention to use digital currency (IUDC). Thereby aiming to inform policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the wider community, fostering a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and providing solutions to enhance the adoption of digital currency in the evolving landscape of digital finance.