Longitudinal Relationships between Academic Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Problematic Internet Use in Early and Late Adolescence.
Although academic stress, depressive symptoms, and problematic internet use are prevalent during adolescence, how these experiences dynamically interact and develop over time—particularly across early and late adolescence—remains insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by examining...
| Published in: | Journal of Youth & Adolescence Vol. 55; no. 5; pp. 1295 - 1310 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
May2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=193628777&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 193628777 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00472891 JYA jtl: Journal of Youth & Adolescence issn: 00472891 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2026 vid: 55 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 193628777 10.1007/s10964-026-02326-9 ppf: 1295 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Longitudinal Relationships between Academic Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Problematic Internet Use in Early and Late Adolescence. aug: au: Wang, Die Wang, Chenyu Huang, Keer Xie, Bowen Guo, Cheng affil: https://ror.org/01kj4z117 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, 400799, Chongqing, China su: Mental depression risk factors Internet addiction Schools Students Psychological stress Academic achievement Risk assessment Research funding Cronbach's alpha Questionnaires Multivariate analysis Chi-squared test Longitudinal method Surveys Mathematical models Cluster sampling Theory Factor analysis sug: subj: Mental depression risk factors Internet addiction Schools Students Psychological stress Academic achievement Elementary and Secondary Schools All Other Miscellaneous Schools and Instruction Risk assessment Research funding Cronbach's alpha Questionnaires Multivariate analysis Chi-squared test Longitudinal method Surveys Mathematical models Cluster sampling Theory Factor analysis keyword: Academic stress Depressive symptoms Developmental trajectories Problematic internet use Within-person effect Academic stress Depressive symptoms Developmental trajectories Problematic internet use Within-person effect ab: Although academic stress, depressive symptoms, and problematic internet use are prevalent during adolescence, how these experiences dynamically interact and develop over time—particularly across early and late adolescence—remains insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by examining the reciprocal relationships and developmental trajectories of these constructs using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM) and Latent Growth Models (LGM), focusing on differences between early and late adolescence. The study surveyed 1,531 early adolescents (M = 12.30, SD = 0.55, 50.95% girls) and 1,620 late adolescents (M = 15.18, SD = 0.51, 50.43% girls) over one year, with three waves of data collection. The RI-CLPM results showed that academic stress, depressive symptoms, and problematic internet use were positively correlated at the between-person level in both developmental stages. At the within-person level, early adolescents exhibited only autoregressive stability, whereas late adolescents showed that fluctuations in depressive symptoms predicted increases in academic stress, which in turn led to higher depressive symptoms and problematic internet use. The LGM results indicated that early adolescents exhibited parallel increases across all three constructs, while late adolescents showed divergent patterns: academic stress increased, depressive symptoms remained stable, and problematic internet use decreased. These findings indicate that the reciprocal relationships and developmental trajectories among academic stress, depressive symptoms, and problematic internet use differ between early and late adolescence, with early adolescence emerging as a critical period for enhancing emotion regulation and environmental support to prevent the development of maladaptive feedback cycles in later stages. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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