Understanding adolescents' problematic internet use from a social/cognitive and addiction research framework
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 18:55authored byYu, JJ, Kim, H, Ian HayIan Hay
As Internet usage has become more prevalent among youth, so too has problematic Internet use. Despite the critical role of emotion regulation in the development of adolescents’ behaviors and the role of parenting interactions on their children’s behaviors, little research has examined these links with reference to problematic and addictive Internet use for adolescents. The main goal of this study was to examine these links, based on a sample of 525 high school students (368 males; M = 15.33 years, SD = 0.47) from a predominantly middle and lower-middle socioeconomic community in Seoul, Korea. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that students’ difficulties in emotion regulation was a mediating variable between students’ perceptions of their parents’ parenting behaviors and the students’ Internet use. The findings substantiate the importance of conceptualizing addiction from a social/cognitive theoretical framework and the notion that adolescence is the onset period for many addictive behaviors and so more proactive attention needs to be given to reducing these early negative behaviors. Based on these results, interventions designed to enhance adolescents’ emotion regulatory abilities have the likelihood to mitigate problematic and even addictive Internet use among youth.
History
Publication title
Computers in Human Behavior
Volume
29
Issue
6
Pagination
2682-2689
ISSN
0747-5632
Department/School
Faculty of Education
Publisher
Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd
Place of publication
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, England, Ox5 1Gb
Rights statement
Copyright 2013 Elsevier.
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Other education and training not elsewhere classified