Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 24, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 2, 2025 - Aug 2, 2025
Date Accepted: Jun 3, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Unveiling diverse trajectories of internet addiction and the influence of family environment and obsessive beliefs: a multi-wave longitudinal study with growth mixed model
ABSTRACT
Background:
Recent longitudinal studies have revealed the heterogeneity of the developmental trajectory of internet addiction (IA), which is believed due to the influences of inter-individual variables. In a social-cognitive framework, family environment (FE) and obsessive beliefs (OBs) are associated with IA severity. However, it remains unclear how these environment and individual cognition factors interact to influence IA development.
Objective:
Objective:
This study aimed to identify the growth trajectories of IA among college students, considering individual differences over time. And explore how FE and OBs contributed to the identified trajectories.
Methods:
This study followed 3,575 Chinese college students for 3 waves (baseline, 1-year and 2-year). IA trend and influencing effects of FE and OBs on IA trajectory were analyzed by Latent Growth Mixture Model (LGMM) and Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM), respectively. Furthermore, we mapped the road from FE and OBs to follow-up IA in youth.
Results:
Employing LGMM, we identified four trajectories of IA. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that negative FE and OBs served as significant predictors of IA classification. Further, we found that both FE and OBs significantly affected the intercept and linear slope of IA trajectory by using LGCM. Finally, the Structural Equation Modeling demonstrated a significant partial mediation effect of OBs on the relationship between FE and follow-up IA.
Conclusions:
This study provides solid empirical evidence showing significant influences of FE and OBs on both initial level and growth rate of IA in youth. Importantly, FE not only influences the IA development directly, but also exerts its influence indirectly through the mediating effect of OBs. Our findings emphasize the necessity of targeted interventions addressing family environmental risks and obsessive thoughts in youth for IA.
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Copyright
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