Internet addiction and depression among Chinese adolescents: anxiety as a mediator and social support as a moderator

ABSTRACT

This study constructed a moderated mediation model to investigate the mediating effect of anxiety and the moderating effect of social support between Internet addiction and depression. A sample of 17 058 middle school students in one district of Chengdu were selected. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD−7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ−9), and Social Support Scale for adolescents were used to investigate their Internet addiction, anxiety, depression and social support. The descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation analysis were performed with SPSS 25.0. An SPSS macro process was used to analyze the data from complex models that contained mediators and moderators. The results show that adolescents with Internet addiction are more likely to suffer from depression. Anxiety partially mediated the relations between Internet addiction and depression. Social support moderated both direct and indirect pathways leading from Internet addiction to depression, and these two effects were stronger for adolescents with low social support than for those with high social support. It will be possible for researchers to gain a better understanding of the conditions, pathways, and effects of Internet addiction on depression in adolescents through the results of this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet addiction
• depression
• anxiety
• social support
• Chinese adolescents

Compliance with ethical standards

A review of the protocol was carried out according to the ethical standards of the Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital and the Education Bureau of Chengdu, as well as to the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, its amendments, or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

This study was conducted with the informed consent of all participants.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Basic Scientific Research Funds of central Public Welfare Scientific Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2018PT31049).