The Association between Interparental Conflict and Problematic Internet Use among Chinese adolescents: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model

Although interparental conflict is a risk factor for adolescent problematic internet use (PIU), little research has investigated the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this association from the perspective of "school × family" interplay. To address such gaps, this study tested the idea that interparental conflict might be associated with PIU in adolescents via restraining the protective effect of future positive time perspective and via boosting deleterious effect of future negative time perspective. In addition, this study also investigated the moderation effect of teacher-student relationship in the association between interparental conflict and future time perspective. Using three-wave longitudinal data, with each time point spanning three months apart, this study examined the aforesaid questions in a sample of 523 Chinese adolescents (M age = 14.64, SD = 1.37; 276 boys and 247 girls). Results of moderated mediation model indicated that interparental conflict at T1 was associated with PIU at T3 in adolescents through future negative time perspective at T2, especially for adolescents with a great teacher-student relationship. These findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that explain how interparental conflict is associated with PIU in adolescents and provide effective prevention and intervention strategies of PIU in a Chinese cultural context