Examining the Relationship Between Digital Hoarding and Beliefs About Losing Control among Special Education Teacher Candidates

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 400 - 411, 30.08.2025

Veli Emre Kurtça

https://doi.org/10.30900/kafkasegt.1623399

Abstract

This study on special education teacher candidates aims to examine the corelation between digital hoarding behaviors and loss of control beliefs. The study included 256 students (34% male, 66% female) ranging in age from 18 to 35 (M = 23.50, SD = 5.44). The study aimed to investigate how control beliefs encourage digital hoarding, especially among special education students. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the links between problems with digital content deletion, digital file accumulation, and control beliefs. The findings showed a strong positive correlation between deletion difficulty and thoughts, behavior, emotions, beliefs about control, and concerns about losing control over bodily functions. Similarly, the accumulation of digital content showed significant positive correlations with these same psychological factors. Structural equation modeling indicated that beliefs about loss of control were significantly associated with digital hoarding (β = 0.41, p < 0.001), explaining 17% of the variance in digital hoarding behavior. These findings suggest that control beliefs play an important role in digital hoarding. It also underlines the need to address these beliefs in interventions for special education teacher candidates.

Keywords

Beliefs about losing control , digital hoarding , special education teacher candidate

References

• Arbuckle, J. L. (2014). Amos (Version 23.0) [Computer software]. IBM SPSS.
• Barut Tuğtekin, E. (2022). Investigation of the relationship between digital hoarding, information technologies self-efficacy, and anxiety. European Journal of Education Studies, 9(1), 157–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v9i1.4106
• Berber Çelik, Ç., & Kaya, F. (2023). Dijital İstifçilik Ölçeği Türkçe Formu’nun Psikometrik Özellikleri. Edebiyat Ve Beşeri Bilimler Dergisi(71), 109-115. https://doi.org/10.5152/AUJFL.2023.23107
• Demirtaş, M., & Koç, N. E. (2022). Bilgi çağının yeni trendi: Dijital istifçilik üzerine bir araştırma. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 28, 290–308. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1132565
• Froreich, F. V., Vartanian, L. R., Grisham, J. R., & Touyz, S. (2016). Dimensions of control and their relation to disordered eating behaviours and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Journal of Eating Disorders, 4, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-016-0104-4
• Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
• IBM Corp. (2016). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 24.0) [Computer software]. IBM Corp. İşliyen, M. (2019). Dijital Çağın Yeni Hastalığı: Dijital İstifçilik. Akdeniz Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi(31), 404-420. https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.534000
• Kaye, J., Vertesi, J., Avery, S., Dafoe, A., David, S., Onaga, L., Rosero, I., & Pinch, T. (2006). To have and to hold: Exploring the personal archive. In CHI 2006: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Conference Proceedings SIGCHI (pp. 275-284). (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1124772.1124814
• Kelly-Turner, K., & Radomsky, A. S. (2020). The fear of losing control in social anxiety: An experimental approach. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 44(4), 834–845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10104-5
• Kelly‐Turner, K., & Radomsky, A. S. (2023). At the mercy of myself: A thematic analysis of beliefs about losing control. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 97(2), 271–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12515
• Kesmodel, U. S. (2018). Cross-sectional studies–what are they good for? Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 97(4), 388–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.13331
• Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
• Luxon, A. M., Hamilton, C. E., Bates, S., & Chasson, G. S. (2019). Pinning our possessions: Associations between digital hoarding and symptoms of hoarding disorder. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 21, 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.12.007
• Mercan, O., & Kabadayı, F. (2023). Psychometric properties of the BALCI Turkish version. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 36(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-023-00248-0
• Moulding, R., & Kyrios, M. (2006). Anxiety disorders and control related beliefs: The exemplar of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Clinical Psychology Review, 26(5), 573–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.01.009
• Myers, S. G., & Wells, A. (2013). An experimental manipulation of metacognition: A test of the metacognitive model of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(4–5), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2013.01.007
• Neave, N., Briggs, P., McKellar, K., & Sillence, E. (2019). Digital hoarding behaviours: measurement and evaluation. Computers in Human Behavior, 96, 72-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.037
• Neiterman, E., & Zaza, C. (2019). A Mixed Blessing? Students’ and Instructors’ Perspectives about Off-Task Technology Use in the Academic Classroom. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2019.1.8002
• Raines, A. M., Oglesby, M. E., Unruh, A. S., Capron, D. W., & Schmidt, N. B. (2014). Perceived control: A general psychological vulnerability factor for hoarding. Personality and Individual Differences, 56, 175–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.09.005
• Radomsky, A. S. (2022). The fear of losing control. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 77, 101768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101768
• Radomsky, A. S., & Gagné, J. P. (2020). The development and validation of the beliefs about losing control inventory (BALCI). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 49(2), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2019.1614978
• Renschler, K., & Freeman, J. (2023). Digital hoarding: A new subtype of traditional hoarding disorder? The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 39(2), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30686
• Sandstrom, A., & Radomsky, A. S. (2024). Beliefs about losing control and other OCD-related cognitions: An experimental investigation. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 82, 101919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101919
• Sedera, D. and Lokuge, S. (2018) Is Digital Hoarding a Mental Disorder? Develop-ment of a Construct for Digital Hoarding for Future IS Research. Thirty Ninth International Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco 2018, San Francisco, 1-17. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2018/behavior/Presentations/27
• Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., & Grover, V. (2022). Modern-day hoarding: A model for understanding and measuring digital hoarding. Information & Management, 59(8), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2022.103700
• Steketee, G., Frost, R. O., & Kyrios, M. (2003). Cognitive aspects of compulsive hoarding. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 463–479. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025428631552
• Sillence, E., Dawson, J. A., McKellar, K., & Neave, N. (2022). How do students use digital technology to manage their university-based data: Strategies, accumulation difficulties and feelings of overload? Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(14), 2442–2451. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2126948
• Sweeten, G., Sillence, E., & Neave, N. (2018). Digital hoarding behaviours: Underlying motivations and potential negative consequences. Computers in Human Behavior, 85, 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.03.031
• Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using Multivariate Statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
• Thorpe, S., Bolster, A., & Neave, N. (2019). Exploring aspects of the cognitive behavioural model of physical hoarding in relation to digital hoarding behaviours. Digital health, 5, 2055207619882172. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207619882172
• van Bennekom, M. J., Blom, R. M., Vulink, N., & Denys, D. (2015). A case of digital hoarding. BMJ Case Reports, 2015, bcr2015210814. https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2015-210814
• Vinoi, N., Shankar, A., Mehrotra, A., Kumar, J., & Azad, N. (2024). Enablers and inhibitors of digital hoarding behaviour: An application of dual-factor theory and regret theory. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 77, 103645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103645
• Wang, H., Miao, P., Jia, H., & Lai, K. (2023). The dark side of upward social comparison for social media users: An investigation of fear of missing out and digital hoarding behavior. Social Media + Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221150420
• Zaremohzzabieh, Z., Abdullah, H., Ahrari, S., Abdullah, R., & Md Nor, S. M. (2024). Exploration of vulnerability factors of digital hoarding behavior among university students and the moderating role of maladaptive perfectionism. Digital Health, 10, 20552076241226962. https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241226962