Parental Behavioral and Psychological Control and Problematic Internet Use Among Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Self-Control

We explored the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between explicit self-esteem and pathological Internet use in a sample of 624 Chinese adolescents. The participants were administered a series of measures, including the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3), and Young Internet Addiction Test. The results suggested that greater pathological Internet use was associated with lower explicit self-esteem and greater loneliness, but loneliness was positively correlated with pathological Internet use. The mediation analysis indicated that loneliness completely mediated the association between explicit self-esteem and pathological Internet use among adolescents, implying that lower explicit self-esteem was correlated with greater loneliness, which was then associated with greater pathological Internet use. Accordingly, enhancing adolescents' self-esteem and decreasing their feelings of loneliness may function as a preventive measure to help teenagers relieve their levels of pathological Internet use.

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Parental Attachment and Problematic Internet Use among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Gender and Grit

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17238933 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (23) ◽

pp. 8933

Author(s):

Xiaoyu Lan ◽

Wenchao Wang

Keyword(s):

Parental Attachment ◽

Internet Use ◽

Attachment Security ◽

Chinese Adolescents ◽

Maternal Attachment ◽

Problematic Internet Use ◽

Health Concern ◽

Paternal Attachment ◽

Optimal Functioning

Problematic Internet use (PIU) is currently becoming a more serious public health concern, representing a deleterious effect on adolescent adaptive emotional and behavioral patterns. Given the prevalence of PIU and its deleterious impact on adolescents’ optimal functioning, it is valuable to investigate the risk and protective factors of PIU. Guided by a socio-ecological framework, the current study examines the associations of paternal attachment and maternal attachment with PIU among Chinese adolescents. Furthermore, this study investigates whether adolescents’ gender and grit moderate this association. A total of 2677 Chinese adolescents (56.5% girls; Mage = 15.56; SD = 1.57) was involved in this study. Adolescents were uniformly instructed to complete a battery of self-reported questionnaires. The results of linear regression analyses showed that paternal attachment and maternal attachment security were negatively related to PIU. Moreover, moderation analyses revealed that higher levels of grit buffered against boys’ PIU in the context of paternal attachment security and girls’ PIU in the context of paternal attachment insecurity. The current study suggests that parental attachment security plays an important role in mitigating the likelihood of Chinese adolescents’ PIU. Moreover, the buffering role of grit in PIU varies by the levels of paternal attachment security, depending on the adolescents’ gender.

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