Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore the associations of Internet dysfunctional use with social anxiety, the need to belong, collective self-esteem and demographic factors in a sample of 974 adolescents and emerging adults, aged 12-19 years. The following questionnaires were used: The Generalized Pathological Internet Use Scale (Caplan, 2002), the Greek Problematic Internet Use Scale (Roussos & Delizisi, 2011), the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (La Greca & Lopez, 1998), the Need to Belong Scale (Leary et al., 2013), an adapted version of the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (Luhtanen & Crocken, 1992), and an additional set of demographic questions including quantitative and qualitative aspects of Internet use. Dysfunctional Internet use was found to correlate significantly with social anxiety. Maladaptive cognitions were associated with social avoidance. Also, mood alteration correlated with the fear of negative evaluation. The exploration of alternative structural equation models showed that the main predictors of dysfunctional Internet use were the fear of negative evaluation and social avoidance. The need to belong mediated the relationship between the two social anxiety dimensions and dysfunctional cognitions. Additionally, collective self-esteem mediated the relationship between the two social anxiety dimensions and mood alteration. The findings of the study highlight the need to further examine Internet use in relation to social psychological relational factors.
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