Problematic Internet Use Predicts Lesser Satisfaction with Life, but Psychological Distress Acts as a Mediator.
Problematic internet use (PIU) has emerged, from the extensive use of the internet, as a concept to describe and understand the more adverse influences of digitalization on people's experiences. PIU refers to compulsive or excessive internet use leading to psychosocial impairments (among others, anx...
| Published in: | CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking Vol. 28; no. 9; pp. 616 - 623 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Sep2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=187861288&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 187861288 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 21522715 BABN jtl: CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking issn: 21522715 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2025 vid: 28 iid: 9 pid: 1365 pub: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. place: New Rochelle, New York artinfo: ui: 187861288 187861288 187861288 10.1177/21522715251365537 187861288 ppf: 616 ppct: 7 formats: tig: atl: Problematic Internet Use Predicts Lesser Satisfaction with Life, but Psychological Distress Acts as a Mediator. aug: au: Codina, Nuria Pestana, José V. Ogden, Ruth Wittmann, Marc Martin-Soelch, Chantal Witowska, Joanna Černohorská, Vanda Schoetensack, Christine Papastamatelou, Julie Klegr, Tereza Chappuis, Sebastien Fernandez-Boente, Monica Marentes-Castillo, María Valenzuela, Rafael affil: Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. sug: subj: Internet Addiction Psychosocial Factors Psychological Distress Evaluation Personal Satisfaction Evaluation Psychological Well-Being Evaluation Human Structural Equation Modeling Questionnaires Europe World Wide Web Applications Maximum Likelihood Data Analysis Software Confidence Intervals Bivariate Statistics Adult Middle Age Male Female Systematic Random Sample Cross Sectional Studies Surveys Mediation Analysis Multivariate Analysis Analysis of Variance Post Hoc Analysis Multivariate Analysis of Covariance Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Descriptive Statistics Funding Source Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Male Female ab: Problematic internet use (PIU) has emerged, from the extensive use of the internet, as a concept to describe and understand the more adverse influences of digitalization on people's experiences. PIU refers to compulsive or excessive internet use leading to psychosocial impairments (among others, anxiety, depression, lesser well-being), and it has been studied from diverse perspectives. However, the mechanisms through which PIU could exert its impact on broader satisfaction with life (SWL) remain unclear. The present work postulates that psychological distress acts as a mediator between PIU and SWL. This hypothesis is tested in large participant groups (N = 7,536), representative of the normative population of six European countries in terms of age and gender. In the context of full structural equation modeling, analyses of direct and indirect effects show evidence for partial mediation of psychological distress between PIU and SWL, with the small positive direct effect of PIU on SWL reversing its valence to moderate and negative via the mediation of psychological distress in all six countries. These findings show that psychological distress is relevant to consider both in trying to define the limits of PIU as a construct and in considering its impacts on SWL in general. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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