Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTION
Volume 19, Issue 4, Pages 1227-1242Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11469-019-00220-z
Keywords
Internet addiction; Aggression; Self-control; Positive affect
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that internet addiction was positively associated with aggressive behaviors, while self-control and positive affect mediated this relationship and acted as protective factors. This suggests that targeting key skills like self-control may help prevent problematic behaviors in adolescents who are prone to addiction or aggression.
Internet addiction has been associated with increased engagement in aggressive behavior, although the individual characteristics that may elevate the risk for these problematic behaviors are unknown. The current study investigated whether self-control and subjective well-being (indexed by positive and negative affect) mediated the association between Internet addiction and aggression among a sample of 284 Israeli-Palestinian students attending grades 9-12 across ten state schools in Israel. Internet addiction was positively associated with aggressive behaviors (r = 0.33, p < 0.01) but negatively associated with self-control (r = -0.34, p < 0.01) and positive affect (r = -0.36, p < 0.01). Similarly, aggressive behaviors were negatively related to self-control (r = -0.38, p < 0.01) and positive affect (r = -0.34, p < 0.01). Notably, self-control and positive affect each mediated the positive association between Internet addiction and aggressive behavior, with self-control and positive affect being protective factors. Thus, the current findings provide theoretical insight into individual characteristics that may exacerbate an individual's risk for problematic behavior and may encourage intervention approaches to target key skills (e.g., self-control) among adolescents who may be prone to addictive or aggressive behaviors.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available