Stress Factors of the Urban Digital Environment: Personal Determinants of Susceptibility

Abstract

Background. Modern digital urban environment, as a representation of real urban environment, functions according to the rules of living environment, including its being a real source of stress. The solution of practical tasks to improve the quality of life in the conditions of modern urban environment determine the relevance of research on stress factors of digital urban environment and the study of their possible determinants. Objectives. The study aims to assess the role of personal characteristics of young people, determining subjectively faster reaction to stress factors of digital urban environment. Study Participants. The study involved 619 participants aged from 17 to 25 years (41% males, 59% females), students of colleges and universities of Ekaterinburg. Methods. To study the subjective significance of stress factors of the digital environment, the authors created a specialised questionnaire, which involved the assessment of the 34 proposed stress factors on a scale from 0 to 4 points. The psychodiagnostic techniques HEXACO and “Dark Triad” were used to study personal characteristics of the respondents. Factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and linear regression analysis were used to process quantitative data. Results. As a result of factorization, 4 groups of stress factors in the digital urban environment as perceived by young people were identified: imperfection of urban digital services and applications; information coercion and security risks; aggressive behaviour and low culture of interaction of subjects in the Internet; aesthetic unattractiveness of urban digital space. Regression analysis made it possible to build statistically significant models for each of the four identified factors. It was found that the main predictors for sensitivity to stressors of the digital urban environment are negative personality traits. Conclusions. The materials of the conducted research indicate the importance of personality characteristics in determining stress reactions of young people to negative factors of digital urban space, but reflect the variability of their impact on stress: weakening the effect of some types of stressors, but at the same time enhancing the effect of other stressors.

Keywords

• stress
• digital environment
• urban digital environment
• personality
• stressor
• susceptibility
• young people