| Summary: | This study examines the relationship between Internet addiction (IA) and well-being among early adolescents in Taiwan, and tests whether this relationship operates within persons or between persons. We used a three-wave longitudinal dataset from 39 elementary schools in Keelung City, collected between 2020 and 2022. A total of 2,198 students provided data, and all models were estimated with full information maximum likelihood. IA was measured with a short form of the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale, and well-being with the Flourishing Scale. We compared a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) with a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), controlling for gender. In the CLPM, IA and well-being were negatively related over time, and the path from IA to later well-being was stronger than the reverse. In the RI-CLPM, which separates within-person change from stable between-person differences, none of the within-person cross-lagged paths were significant, while the random intercepts were negatively correlated (<italic>r</italic> = − .37). The results showed that the negative relationship between IA and well-being mainly reflects stable differences between adolescents; we found no evidence of a within-person process during early adolescence. These findings suggest that prevention should focus on identifying the adolescents who show both problems, and that future research should examine within-person processes with shorter intervals.
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