Comorbidity of Internet addiction and posttraumatic stress disorder among Chinese children and adolescents

Abstract

Background

Exposure to COVID-19 is linked with a set of common mental disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research has demonstrated that PTSD is linked with addiction-related symptoms. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the linkage between PTSD symptoms and Internet addiction (IA) symptoms that have included a large sample of children and adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the comorbidity of IA and PTSD among a large sample of Chinese students exposed to COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns by conducting a network analysis.

Method

The data used in this study was extracted from six-month follow-up data from a longitudinal study that included 7958 Chinese adolescents. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess IA and PTSD symptoms. Network analysis was conducted on 31 items: 19 items from the IA community and 12 from the PTSD community.

Results

This study found that symptoms from the same community cluster were more closely related. Four key bridge symptoms were identified: sleep problems, concentration difficulties, irritability, and withdrawal distress. In the PTSD-only network, central symptoms were avoiding reminders, easy reminding, avoiding thoughts, and startled.

Conclusions

The estimated network structure of PTSD and IA symptoms highlighted key bridge symptoms that are more influential than others on comorbidity maintenance. These symptoms could be targeted in clinical practice to better alleviate the suffering of children and adolescents. Interventions could focus on vital symptoms including alleviating sleep problems, concentration difficulties, irritability, and withdrawal distress to decrease the comorbidity of IA and PTSD.

Keywords:

• Internet addiction
• posttraumatic stress disorder
• children
• adolescents
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFC3604704), National Natural Science Foundation of China (42271433), Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (JCRCYG-2022-003), Wuhan University Specific Fund for Major School-level Internationalization Initiatives (WHU-GJZDZX-PT07), and the International Institute of Spatial Lifecourse Health (ISLE).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32200903), Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (22YJC190019), Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2023NSFSC1486), and Chengdu Positive Child Development (CPCD) Survey (19H0642).