The Relationship Between Media Multitasking And Attention Control Among Secondary Vocational School Students: The Chain Mediation Effect Of Mindfulness And Procrastinatio

Media multitasking behavior is when individuals use multiple tasks simultaneously and at least one task is related to media use.Collectively,previous studies have shown that the relationship between media multitasking and attentional control is not clear.One of the possible reasons for the unclear relationship between media multitasking and attentional control is the criteria for dividing the two levels of media multitasking.In addition,the relationship between media multitasking and attentional control may be mediated by other factors,and it has been shown that individuals with high levels of positive awareness have lower levels of attentional failure and less procrastination.However,it is unclear exactly how awareness and procrastination play a role in the relationship between media multitasking and attentional control.Therefore,the present study divided media multitasking behaviors into three levels of mild,moderate,and severe to determine the relationship between different levels of media multitasking behaviors and attentional control,and then explored the mechanisms underlying media multitasking and attentional control as well as the chain mediating role of positive awareness and procrastination behaviors.In this study,650 Mid-career students from a vocational high school in Tianjin and Sichuan were used as the research subjects,and a total of 574 valid data were selected.The average age of the subjects was 15.78±0.78 years old,of which 260 were male and 314 were female.The Chinese Youth Media Multitasking Questionnaire,the Positive Attention Awareness Scale,the Aitken Procrastination Questionnaire,and the Attention Control Scale were also used as measurement tools.Firstly,media multitaskers with three levels of mild,moderate and severe media multitasking were screened to verify the relationship between media multitasking levels and attentional control.Secondly,the relationship between media multitasking,attentional control,positive awareness and procrastination behavior in adolescents was examined;and whether there was a mediating effect between positive awareness and procrastination behavior between media multitasking behavior and attentional control in adolescents was tested.Results:(1)Light media multitaskers performed best in attentional control,moderate media multitaskers performed second best,and heavy media multitaskers performed worst,demonstrating that the level of media multitasking can negatively predict the attentional control of secondary school students.(2)Media multitasking,positive thought perception,procrastination behavior,and attentional control were bivariately correlated in middle school students.Media multitasking predicted attentional control,positive perception,and procrastination,i.e.,the higher the level of media multitasking in adolescents,the poorer their attentional control,the lower the level of positive perception,and the more severe their procrastination.(3)Positive awareness and procrastination act as a chain mediator between media multitasking and attentional control.Conclusion:(1)For the group of Mid-career students,there was a significant negative correlation between their media multitasking behavior and attentional control,i.e.,as the degree of media multitasking increased,attentional control decreased.(2)The effect of media multitasking behaviors on attentional control was achieved exclusively through positive awareness and procrastination behaviors.