A group-based modeling approach to estimating longitudinal trajectories of Korean adolescents’ on-line game time

Trajectories of Screen Time across Adolescence and Their Associations with Adulthood Mental Health and Behavioral Outcomes

Excessive screen time among adolescents is discussed as a significant public health concern. Identifying adolescent longitudinal patterns of time spent on regularly-used media screens and understanding their young adulthood mental health and behavioral issue correlates may help inform strategies for improving these outcomes. This study aimed to characterize joint developmental patterns of time spent on videogames, surfing/chatting the Internet, and TV/DVDs during adolescence (at ages 11, 13, 15, 17) and their associations with mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-injury) and behavioral issues (i.e., substance use, delinquency, aggression) in early adulthood (at age 20). A parallel-process latent class growth analysis was used to model data from a diverse community-ascertained sample of youth in Zurich, Switzerland (n = 1521; 51.7% males). Results suggested that a five-class model best fitted the data: (1) low-screen use, 37.6%; (2) increasing chatting/surfing, 24.0%; (3) moderate-screen use, 18.6%; (4) early-adolescence screen use, 9.9%; and (5) increasing videogame and chatting/surfing, 9.9%. After adjusting for baseline levels of outcomes (primarily at age 11), the trajectory groups differed in their associations with adulthood outcomes of mental health and behavioral problems, indicating the importance of problematic screen usage patterns in predicting these outcomes. Future research to test the directionality of these associations will be important. These findings suggest which patterns of screen use may be a marker for later mental health and behavioral issues in different domains.

Addressing internet gaming disorder in children and adolescents

ABSTRACT

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been recognized as a potential behavioral addiction that warrants further research. This article discusses the signs, symptoms, and risk factors of this behavioral addiction as well as nursing interventions to support children and adolescents with IGD and their families.

Social-Emotional Learning Competencies and Problematic Internet Use among Chinese Adolescents: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

To advance the understanding about social-cognitive factors related to Chinese adolescents’ experience with problematic Internet use (PIU), we examined the associations between social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies (i.e., responsible decision-making, social awareness, self-management, self-awareness, and social relationship) and problematic Internet use (PIU) among 1141 11th grade high school students from Southwest China. Through comparing the latent means of PIU across students with different demographic background (i.e., gender, social-economic status, left-behind status), the study found that male students endorsed higher levels of overall PIU and more problematic time management with Internet use than female students. No latent PIU mean differences were observed across family income and students’ left-behind status. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) while controlling for demographic factors, overall SEL competencies were found to have a significantly negative association with PIU. Meanwhile, all five SEL domains were also negatively associated with students’ PIU. The findings imply the importance of fostering SEL competencies in preventing PIU among Chinese adolescents. The study provides important practical implications for informing school-based SEL competencies programs for PIU prevention among Chinese youths.

The interplay among stress, frustration tolerance, mindfulness, and social support in Internet gaming disorder symptoms among Chinese working adults

INTRODUCTION

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a growing mental health threat across age groups, but existing literature regarding IGD mainly focuses on student populations. Empirical investigation of the risk and protective factors in adult populations is warranted. This study aimed to fill the research gap by examining whether stress and 3 positive psychology factors (ie, frustration tolerance, mindfulness, and social support) are associated with IGD symptoms in working adults. It was also the first attempt to test the buffering effects of these positive psychology factors on the relationship between stress and IGD vulnerability.

METHOD

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shenzhen, China. We recruited 327 full-time working Chinese adults (mean age = 31.93 years), who had online gaming experience and voluntarily completed an anonymous questionnaire with DSM-5 criteria to measure their IGD symptoms.

RESULTS

Internet gaming disorder symptoms were positively correlated with stress and negatively correlated with the 3 positive psychology factors, among which mindfulness emerged as the most salient protective factor. Moreover, mindfulness, but not frustration tolerance and social support, was found to significantly alleviate the relationship between stress and IGD.

DISCUSSION

Our findings provide supportive evidence for the protective and moderating roles of positive psychology variables against IGD among Chinese working adults. Workplace-based prevention programs may take the identified factors into account to help promote individuals' personal resources to mitigate development of IGD.

The longitudinal association between anxiety and Internet addiction in adolescence: The moderating effect of classroom extraversion

Background and aims The risk effect of anxiety on addictive behaviors, including Internet addiction (IA), has repeatedly been highlighted in the international literature. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies examining this association in relation to proximal context effects, particularly in adolescence. Such findings would shed light on potential age- and proximal context-related variations in the anxiety-IA association that could better inform IA prevention and intervention initiatives. Methods In this study, 648 adolescents, embedded in 34 classrooms, were assessed at the age of 16 and again at the age of 18 to examine the effect of anxiety on IA behaviors in relation to the average level of classroom extraversion. IA was assessed with the Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1998), anxiety with the relevant subscale of the Symptom Checklist 90 - Revised (Derogatis & Savitz, 1999) and classroom extraversion with the synonymous subscale of the Five Factor Questionnaire (Asendorpf & van Aken, 2003). A three-level hierarchical linear model was calculated. Results The present findings demonstrated that: (a) higher levels of anxiety were significantly associated with higher IA behaviors, (b) the strength of this association did not vary over time (between 16 and 18 years old), and (c) however, it tended to weaken within classrooms higher in extraversion. Discussion This study indicated that the contribution of individual IA risk factors might differently unfold within different contexts.

Experiential Avoidance and Technological Addictions in Adolescents

Background and aims This study focuses on the use of popular information and communication technologies (ICTs) by adolescents: the Internet, mobile phones, and video games. The relationship of ICT use and experiential avoidance (EA), a construct that has emerged as underlying and transdiagnostic to a wide variety of psychological problems, including behavioral addictions, is examined. EA refers to a self-regulatory strategy involving efforts to control or escape from negative stimuli such as thoughts, feelings, or sensations that generate strong distress. This strategy, which may be adaptive in the short term, is problematic if it becomes an inflexible pattern. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore whether EA patterns were associated with addictive or problematic use of ICT in adolescents. Methods A total of 317 students of the Spanish southeast between 12 and 18 years old were recruited to complete a questionnaire that included questions about general use of each ICTs, an experiential avoidance questionnaire, a brief inventory of the Big Five personality traits, and specific questionnaires on problematic use of the Internet, mobile phones, and video games. Results Correlation analysis and linear regression showed that EA largely explained results regarding the addictive use of the Internet, mobile phones, and video games, but not in the same way. As regards gender, boys showed a more problematic use of video games than girls. Concerning personality factors, conscientiousness was related to all addictive behaviors. Discussion and conclusions We conclude that EA is an important construct that should be considered in future models that attempt to explain addictive behaviors.