Abstract
Research has revealed that Internet addiction is a risk factor for adolescents’ development of depressive symptoms, although the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. The present study examines the mediating role of positive youth development and the moderating role of mindfulness to determine the association between Internet addiction and depression. A sample of 522 Chinese adolescents completed measures related to Internet addiction, positive youth development, mindfulness, depression, and their background information, for which the results reveal that positive youth development mediates the relation between Internet addiction and depression. Moreover, the associations between both Internet addiction and depression as well as positive youth development and depression are moderated by mindfulness. These two effects were stronger for adolescents with low mindfulness than for those with high mindfulness. The present study contributes to a more thorough understanding of how and when Internet addiction increases the risk of depression in adolescents, suggesting that Internet addiction may affect adolescent depression through positive youth development and that mindfulness can alleviate the negative effect of Internet addiction or a low level of psychological resources on depression. The implications for research and practice are finally discussed.
Highlights
The Internet has introduced significant convenience to our lives, it has brought about a serious mental health problem: Internet addiction, which is defined as an individual’s inability to control his/her use of the Internet [1, 2]
Internet addiction was negatively correlated with mindfulness and positive youth development positively correlated with depression
Positive youth development was negatively correlated with depression and positively correlated with mindfulness, while mindfulness was negatively correlated with depression
Summary
The Internet has introduced significant convenience to our lives, it has brought about a serious mental health problem: Internet addiction, which is defined as an individual’s inability to control his/her use of the Internet [1, 2]. Internet addiction may cause various psychological and behavioral problems in an individual’s life, including academic failure [3], sleeplessness [4], loneliness [5], and interpersonal relationship conflicts [6], among others. Depression may negatively influence adolescents in various ways, including their achievement of poor interpersonal relationships, a low quality of life, academic failure, and even suicide [7,8,9]. A study of 34 diverse high schools in Western Australia [12] found that Internet addiction (e.g., social networking sites addiction) may lead to depression, while a study of six Asian
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