JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

There has been growing amount of evidence suggested the high rates of co-occurring Internet addiction (IA) symptoms and psychological distress in young people. However, how these symptoms interact dynamically remain not fully understood.

Objective:

This longitudinal study aims to explore the development and changes of IA symptoms over time and the directional relationship between IA and various psychological distress.

Methods:

The research followed a sample of 2,497 Chinese youth across three waves of data collection over a two-year period. We employed network analysis to examine the network structure of IA symptoms at each wave and cross-lagged panel network analysis (CLPN) to investigate longitudinal associations between IA symptoms and psychological distress, including depression, anxiety and stress.

Results:

The cross-sectional networks of IA symptoms at three time points showed high similarity in terms of structure, existence of edges, and centrality estimates. ‘Excessive use’, ‘salience’, and ‘neglect work’ were nodes with the highest expected influence centrality in the IA symptom networks across time. CLPN revealed that psychological distress predicted IA symptoms, but not the other way around, with the strongest weights observed in the three directional networks. Depressive symptoms played a central predictive role in the development of various IA-related problems, and might also serve as bridge symptoms connecting IA and psychological distress issues.

Conclusions:

Findings revealed a relatively stable structure of IA symptoms among college students and suggested that psychological distress, especially depression, may play a central role in activating IA symptoms over time. These results support the compensatory Internet use relationship model and provide important implications for preventing IA in youths.