Objective: Children’s growing digital engagement exposes them to risks such as cyberbullying, privacy breaches, and harmful content. Digital literacy, the ability to critically and responsibly navigate technology, has emerged as a key protective strategy. This review synthesizes evidence on the effectiveness and challenges of digital literacy interventions for children.

This review synthesizes evidence on the effectiveness and challenges of digital literacy interventions for children.

Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and PsycINFO for studies published between 2012 and 2024. Eligible studies evaluated digital literacy interventions among children aged 6–14 years-old, reporting outcomes on online risk reduction and safer digital behaviors. Data were synthesized narratively and, where possible, meta-analytically.

Thirty-four studies met inclusion criteria, including randomized trials, quasi-experimental designs, and qualitative research. Most interventions were delivered in schools or through interactive online platforms. Findings showed that strengthened digital literacy skills consistently reduced cyber bullying incidents, privacy violations, and exposure to harmful content. Effective strategies involved age-appropriate, experiential learning, parental and teacher involvement, and gamified or scenario-based content. Common pitfalls included limited teacher training, lack of cultural adaptation, and inequities in access and participation. Sustained improvements were most evident in programs with longitudinal reinforcement and ongoing support.

Digital literacy is an evidence-based approach to safeguarding children online; however, its effectiveness depends on context-sensitive strategies and overcoming barriers such as unequal access and educator preparedness. Future work should prioritize scalable, adaptive interventions and cross-sector partnerships to close the digital safety gap.

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There is presently limited information on the sexual experiences of women with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Iran.

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of couples’ relationship enrichment counseling on sexual function and sexual satisfaction, sexual shame and sexual self-compassion in women with T2DM.

A quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group was employed. A purposive sample of 68 Iranian women with T2DM was randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention group (n = 34) and a control group (n = 34). The intervention group received six 90-minute sessions of couples’ relationship enrichment counseling, while the control group did not receive any training. Data were collected using self-report scales on women’s Sexual Function Index, Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire, Sexual Shame, and Sexual Self-Compassion. Then they were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measurements.

Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the scores obtained by the scales (p >.05). After the intervention, the mean scores on all scales except sexual shame were significantly different between the two groups, with the intervention group scoring significantly higher (p < .05).

Therefore, the findings provide evidence that couples’ relationship enrichment counseling may be useful for improving sexual function, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-compassion among women with T2DM in Iran.

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Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) imposes substantial economic burdens on healthcare systems.

This study aimed to evaluate the cost-benefit of a gamification-based intervention delivered through the ERES mobile application by examining its impact on healthcare utilization patterns and patient activation among Iranian women with T2DM.

A quasi-experimental cost-benefit analysis was conducted with a pretest-posttest control group design. A purposive sample of 98 Iranian women with T2DM was randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 49) that received eight 90-minute sessions of the ERES-based gamification intervention or a control group (n = 49) that received routine care. Data were collected using the Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13), healthcare utilization records (emergency visits, hospitalizations, outpatient consultations), and cost documentation. Analysis employed multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures and cost-benefit calculation

Baseline analysis showed no significant differences between groups in activation or healthcare utilization (p > .05). Post-intervention results demonstrated significantly greater improvement in patient activation scores in the intervention group compared to controls (p < .01). More notably, the intervention group showed a 42% reduction in diabetes-related emergency visits and a 31% reduction in hospitalizations compared to the control group. Cost-benefit analysis revealed a 2.8:1 return on investment, indicating that for every $1 invested in the intervention, $2.80 was saved in avoided healthcare costs.

The ERES gamification intervention not only enhanced patient activation but also significantly reduced healthcare utilization and generated substantial cost savings. These findings position digital gamification strategies as both clinically effective and economically advantageous for T2DM management. Healthcare policymakers and insurers should consider implementing such interventions to reduce the economic burden of diabetes while improving patient outcomes

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The role of personality factors in explaining individual difference factors in mental health is well-documented.

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between online gaming addiction and the Big-Five personality traits through the mediating role of mental health, while also examining the moderating role of gender in university students.

This applied study employed a correlational design using structural equation modeling. The statistical population included all students at the University of Tehran during the 2024–2025 academic year. A total of 306 participants were selected using convenience sampling. The data were collected using the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale, the short form of the Big Five Inventory, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using path analysis in SPSS-24 and LISREL.

The findings revealed significant gender differences in gaming frequency, game types, and gaming platforms. Emotional stability and agreeableness also varied significantly between genders. A significant positive correlation was found between online gaming addiction and the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (p < .001). No significant correlation was observed between online gaming addiction and any of the Big-Five personality dimensions (p > .05). The indirect effects of personality traits on gaming addiction were not significant, and no significant gender differences were found in the paths from emotion regulation strategies to gaming addiction or from personality traits to emotion regulation strategies (p > .05).

These findings may serve as a foundation for developing psychological interventions aimed at preventing and treating online gaming addiction and offer deeper insight into the role of personality traits and emotion regulation in students’ mental health.

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There is comparatively only modest research that has examined psychological factors on distress tolerance among women with breast cancer, and associated mediating factors.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of wisdom and self-empowerment on distress tolerance among women with breast cancer, considering the mediating roles of coping styles and emotion management

In this cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study, 128 women with breast cancer were selected via convenience sampling from the Cancer Research Center at Hospital in Mashhad. Data were collected using validated questionnaires measuring wisdom, self-empowerment, distress tolerance, coping styles, and emotion management. The proposed relationships were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, multivariate regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM) in SPSS and Smart-PLS.

The findings indicated that wisdom had a significant direct effect on distress tolerance. Furthermore, coping styles served as a significant mediator in the relationship between wisdom and distress tolerance. However, self-empowerment did not exhibit a statistically significant direct effect on distress tolerance, and emotion management did not mediate the relationship between wisdom and distress tolerance.

The results suggest that enhancing wisdom and improving adaptive coping strategies can effectively increase distress tolerance in women with breast cancer. These findings highlight the importance of psychological interventions focused on these constructs in supportive care for cancer patients.

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Body dissatisfaction is becoming more common among adolescents and is a putative risk factor for adverse mental (e.g., eating disorder and depressive symptoms) and physical health outcomes (e.g., excessive weight gain), both of which have also been increasing. Targeting body dissatisfaction through preventative interventions might improve these outcomes, however robust evidence of causal associations is limited.

To investigate the association between body dissatisfaction at age 16 and eating disorder symptoms at age 21, as well as depressive symptoms and BMI at ages 21 and 26 using a co-twin control design.

We used data from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and validated self-report measures. We fitted univariable and multivariable linear mixed effect models adjusting for a comprehensive list of confounding factors (Figure 1) to investigate the association between body dissatisfaction, eating disorder and depressive symptoms, and BMI in the full twin sample. We then repeated these analyses using a co-twin control design, which allows to fully and partially control for genetic confounding in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, respectively, and for any shared measured and unmeasured environmental factors. We conducted primary analyses in imputed datasets for participants with complete exposure data.

The analytical sample included 2,183 twins (60.2% females, 61.7% DZ twins). In the full twin sample, one unit increase in body dissatisfaction at age 16 was associated with: (i) a 1.80-point increase in eating disorder symptoms at age 21 (95%CI: 1.49 to 2.11), (ii) a 0.59-point increase in depressive symptoms (95%CI: 0.46 to 0.72), and (iii) a 0.20-point BMI increase (95%CI: 0.08 to 0.32) across age 21 and 26 years. In co-twin control analyses, the association between body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms was larger in DZ twins (N=661; 1.72, 95%CI: 1.11 to 2.33) than in MZ twins (N=414, 0.96, 95%CI: 0.15 to 1.77), whereas effect sizes for depressive symptoms were comparable [DZ: (0.56, 95%CI: 0.33 to 0.78); MZ: (0.50, 95%CI: 0.15 to 0.85)]. Associations with BMI were smaller in DZ (0.20, 95%CI: 0.00 to 0.40), and null in MZ twins (0.07, 95%CI: -0.21 to 0.35).

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Our findings suggest that greater body dissatisfaction might be a causal risk factor for eating disorders and depression in young people, as associations seen in the full sample persisted in co-twin control analyses. This indicates that body dissatisfaction could be a modifiable target to reduce the risk of these mental health problems in adolescents and young adults. Evidence of associations between body dissatisfaction and increased BMI was weaker in co-twin control analyses than in the full sample. This might be due to larger proportions of shared genetic risk and thus require larger sample sizes to detect.

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To examine if the current taught undergraduate psychiatry syllabus at an Irish University relates to what doctors in psychiatry consider to be clinically relevant and important.

Doctors of different clinical grades were invited to rate their views on 216 items on a 10-point Likert scale ranging from ‘0 = not relevant’ to ‘10 = very relevant’. Participants were invited to comment on topics that should be excluded or included in a new syllabus. Thematic analysis was conducted on this free-text to identify particular themes.

The doctors surveyed rated that knowledge of diagnostic criteria was important for medical students. This knowledge attained high scores across all disorders with particularly high scores for a number of disorders including major depressive disorder (mean = 9.64 (SD = 0.86)), schizophrenia (mean = 9.55 (SD = 0.95)) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); mean = 9.26 (SD = 1.40)). Lower scores were noted for less frequently utilised management strategies (transcranial magnetic stimulation (mean = 4.97 (SD = 2.60)), an awareness of the difference in criteria for use disorder and dependence from psychoactive substances (mean = 5.56 (SD = 2.26)), and some theories pertaining to psychotherapy (i.e. Freud’s drive theory (mean = 4.59 (SD = 2.42)).

This study highlights the importance of an undergraduate programme that is broad based, practical and relevant to student’s future medical practice. An emphasis on diagnosis and management of major psychiatry disorders, and knowledge of the interface between mental health services, other medical specialities and support services was also deemed important.

The association between cannabis and psychosis is established, but the role of underlying genetics is unclear. We used data from the EU-GEI case-control study and UK Biobank to examine the independent and combined effect of heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PRS) on risk for psychosis.

Genome-wide association study summary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort were used to calculate schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder (CUD) PRS for 1098 participants from the EU-GEI study and 143600 from the UK Biobank. Both datasets had information on cannabis use.

In both samples, schizophrenia PRS and cannabis use independently increased risk of psychosis. Schizophrenia PRS was not associated with patterns of cannabis use in the EU-GEI cases or controls or UK Biobank cases. It was associated with lifetime and daily cannabis use among UK Biobank participants without psychosis, but the effect was substantially reduced when CUD PRS was included in the model. In the EU-GEI sample, regular users of high-potency cannabis had the highest odds of being a case independently of schizophrenia PRS (OR daily use high-potency cannabis adjusted for PRS = 5.09, 95% CI 3.08–8.43, p = 3.21 × 10−10). We found no evidence of interaction between schizophrenia PRS and patterns of cannabis use.

Regular use of high-potency cannabis remains a strong predictor of psychotic disorder independently of schizophrenia PRS, which does not seem to be associated with heavy cannabis use. These are important findings at a time of increasing use and potency of cannabis worldwide.