Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature.

This article provides a roadmap to assist graduate students and their advisors to engage in open science practices. We suggest eight open science practices that novice graduate students could begin ad...

Von Tunis nach Teheran (Mittwoch, 1 Oktober, 2025; 17:25)

This randomized clinical trial evaluates the effects of second-generation heart rate variability biofeedback on negative affect, positive affect, craving, and alcohol and other drug use in adults with...

A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to engaging with others online. Specifically, measures of ‘social media addiction’ focus on motivations for online social information seeking, which could relate to motivations for offline social information seeking. However, it could be the case that these same measures could reveal a pattern of friend addiction in general. This study develops the Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ) by re-wording items from highly cited pathological social media use scales to reflect “spending time with friends”. Our methodology for validation follows the current literature precedent in the development of social media ‘addiction’ scales. The O-FAQ had a three-factor solution in an exploratory sample of N = 807 and these factors were stable in a 4-week retest (r = .72 to .86) and was validated against personality traits, and risk-taking behavior, in conceptually plausible directions. Using the same polythetic classification techniques as pathological social media use studies, we were able to classify 69% of our sample as addicted to spending time with their friends. The discussion of our satirical research is a critical reflection on the role of measurement and human sociality in social media research. We question the extent to which connecting with others can be considered an ‘addiction’ and discuss issues concerning the validation of new ‘addiction’ measures without relevant medical constructs. Readers should approach our measure with a level of skepticism that should be afforded to current social media addiction measures.

Led by Professor Richard Riley Join this Online Seminar on clinical prediction models estimate individual risk for outcomes from disease. Many studies lack rigorous design; this session will focus o...

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This multicenter randomized clinical trial investigates the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy for patients with personality disorders, with and without comorbid po...

Exploring the relationship between ADHD and boredom