Posttraumatic stress symptoms, adversity belief, and internet addiction in adolescents who experienced a major earthquake

Abstract

This study assessed the moderating role of adversity beliefs in the association between post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) and internet addiction (IA) in adolescents over 9.5 years old in the period after the Wenchuan earthquake. We recruited a total of 776 middle-school students in the area hit by the earthquake. The students were asked to complete a negative life events scale, the DSM-5 PTSD checklist, the Chinese adversity beliefs scale, and the Chinese internet addiction scale. We found that PTSSs, including intrusive symptoms, negative alterations in mood and cognition symptoms (NAMC), and hyperarousal symptoms but not avoidance symptoms, had positive predictive effects on IA. Positive adversity beliefs had negative predictive effects on IA. A moderating effect analysis showed that positive adversity beliefs could buffer the influence of PTSSs’ negative alterations in mood and cognition symptoms on IA. However, positive adversity beliefs were not found to have a buffering role in the relationship between intrusive, avoidance, and hyperarousal PTSS symptoms and IA.