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

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.