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. 2022 Jul:227:103612.
doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103612. Epub 2022 May 11.

The relationship between internet addiction and aggressive behavior among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: Anxiety as a mediator

Yifan Zhang  1 , Zhe Hou  2 , Song Wu  3 , Xiaoqian Li  1 , Mengyao Hao  4 , Xiaofei Wu  5
Affiliations

The relationship between internet addiction and aggressive behavior among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: Anxiety as a mediator

Yifan Zhang et al. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Jul.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges for adolescents, who tended to experience more emotional instability, impulsivity, and aggressive behavior driven by the fear of infection and the uncertainty of network information. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between Internet addiction and aggressive behavior, and the mediating effects of depression and anxiety. There were differences in Internete addiction and aggressive behavior in gender, thus the moderating role of gender between them were explored. A total of 1148 middle school students were invited to complete the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Internet Addition Scale, the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) separately. The results suggested that 1) there was a significant positive correlation between Internet addiction and aggressive behavior; 2) anxiety, but not depression, mediated the effect of Internet addiction on aggressive behavior; 3) gender did not moderate the effect of Internet addiction on aggressive behavior. The practical implication of the current findings on boosting adolescents' mental health was discussed and further suggestions were provided.

Keywords: Aggressive behavior; Anxiety; Depression; Internet addiction; Mediator.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The mediating path of anxiety and depression between Internet addiction and physical aggression. ⁎⁎⁎p < 0.001 (standardized regression coefficients with 5000 Bootstrap Samples).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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