Studyholism: Una nuova potenziale condizione clinica

The main aims of the present thesis are to analyze the antecedents and the outcomes of a new potential clinical disorder related to overstudying, namely Studyholism (or obsession toward study), to analyze the prevalence in Italian College students, and to gain some insights about the internalizing or externalizing nature of this new construct. The literature about problematic overstudying is recent; however, there is not agreement about its definition as an addiction (externalizing nature) or as an obsession (internalizing nature) related to study. Atroszko, Andreassen, Griffiths, and Pallesen (2015) introduced the term Study Addiction and suggested that it is a behavioral addiction characterized by the seven core components of substance addiction. Loscalzo and Giannini (2017) suggested instead defining problematic overstudying as Studyholism and they stressed, in line with the recent critical papers about behavioral addiction studies, that we should go beyond the addiction framework and avoid overpathologizing a common behavior such as studying. For these reasons, they suggested defining Studyholism in the Heavy Study Investment framework (a construct derived from the Workaholism literature, Snir & Harpaz, 2012) and distinguishing among different heavy study investors: disengaged studyholics, engaged studyholics, engaged students. Finally, they suggested that Studyholism is more similar to an obsession than to an addiction to studying. I conducted four studies on a total sample of 5217 Italian College students aged between 18 and 60 years (M age = 22.68±2.85). First, I performed correlations and regression analyses on 300 students aiming to select some of the Studyholism antecedents and outcomes proposed by Loscalzo and Giannini (2017). Next, Study 2 analyzed a Structural Equation Model, more specifically a path analysis, on 1958 Italian College students, in order to test the direct effects that I hypothesized based on the Workaholism, Study Addiction, and Studyholism literatures. As I hypothesized that Studyholism and Study Engagement have opposite relationships with the same outcomes, I also entered Study Engagement in the model. Moreover, I analyzed by means of Multivariate and Univariate Analyses of the variance (MANOVAs and ANOVAs) whether there are some demographic differences (e.g., age, civil status, also being involved in work beside studying) on Studyholism and Study Engagement, and if there are some differences on the antecedents and outcomes that I analyzed by means of the path analysis among the four kinds of students. Study 3 analyzed instead the prevalence of Studyholism and the four kinds of students in a merged sample of 5217 Italian College students. Finally, Study 4 addressed psychopathology as a possible antecedent and outcome of Studyholism on 392 Italian students by means of correlation and regression analyses. Among the main results of this thesis, I found that worry is a strong positive predictor of Studyholism. Furthermore, Studyholism predicts psychological and physical health impairment and it is an important risk factor for dropping out of University, while Study Engagement is a protective factor. Regarding social relationships, Studyholism does not predict aggressive behaviors at the University, while it predicts higher levels of family and friends’ complaints and social relationship impairment due to study. In addition, Study Engagement also positively predicts social impairment. Moreover, there are differences in antecedents and outcomes among the four kinds of students. Finally, as hypothesized, almost all the internalizing symptoms that I analyzed by means of Study 4 positively predict Studyholism, with Obsessive-Compulsive symptoms and Anxiety symptoms being the strongest predictors. The results about the negative consequences of Studyholism are important especially taking into account that I found that Studyholism is quite widespread, and that there are more Engaged studyholics than Disengaged studyholics, and that the lowest percentage of students belongs to the Engaged student type. This thesis has both theoretical and clinical implications. First, it provides support for the definition of Studyholism as an internalizing disorder, or as an Obsessive-Compulsive related disorder. Regarding preventive and clinical interventions, the results suggest that worry should be the primary target of interventions aiming to reduce Studyholism; however, Perfectionism Concerns and Study-related perfectionism should also be addressed both to favor academic success and students’ wellbeing. Moreover, preventive interventions that aim to enhance students’ wellbeing should be addressed to engaged students too, in order to teach them how to manage their time so as to leave some time free for friends, family, and leisure activities. Finally, in the area of clinical interventions, it is particularly important to distinguish between engaged and disengaged studyholics in order to provide a tailored intervention.