School Connectedness and Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Self-Control

May 23, 2013Journal of abnormal child psychology

How feeling connected to school relates to problematic internet use in teens, influenced by risky friends and self-control

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Abstract

A total of 2,758 Chinese adolescents were examined for the relationship between school connectedness and problematic Internet use.

Adolescent problematic Internet use (PIU) is negatively associated with school connectedness.
Deviant peer affiliation partially mediates the relationship between school connectedness and PIU.
The mediating effect of deviant peer affiliation is stronger in adolescents with low self-control.
Gender, age, socioeconomic status, and parental attachment were controlled for in the analysis.

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Although a growing body of research documents the negative association between school connectedness and adolescent problematic Internet use (PIU), little is known about the mediating mechanism (i.e., how school connectedness relates to PIU?) and moderating mechanism (i.e., when the protection is most potent?) underlying this relation. The present study examined whether deviant peer affiliation mediated the relationship between school connectedness and PIU, and whether this mediating process was moderated by adolescent self-control. A total of 2,758 Chinese adolescents (46 % male; mean age = 13.53 years, SD = 1.06) from 10 middle schools completed anonymous questionnaires regarding school connectedness, deviant peer affiliation, self-control, and PIU. After controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status, and parental attachment, it was found that the negative association between school connectedness and adolescent PIU was partially mediated by deviant peer affiliation. Moreover, this indirect link was stronger for adolescents with low self-control than for those with high self-control. These findings underscore the importance of integrating the social control theory and organism-environment interaction model to understand how and when school connectedness impacts adolescent PIU.

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School Connectedness and Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Self-Control

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