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. 2020 Jul 10;15(7):e0235834.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235834. eCollection 2020.

Relationships between internet use, deliberate self-harm, and happiness in adolescents: A Taiwan birth cohort pilot study

For-Wey Lung  1   2 , Bih-Ching Shu  3 , Tung-Liang Chiang  4 , Shio-Jean Lin  5
Affiliations

Relationships between internet use, deliberate self-harm, and happiness in adolescents: A Taiwan birth cohort pilot study

For-Wey Lung et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The potential risk of internet use on adolescents' self-harm is a major concern. Vulnerable adolescents who are susceptible to bullying are also susceptible to the negative influence of the internet. In this study, the pathway associations were investigated between the risk factors of deliberate self-harm, experience of being bullied, internet use, and protective factors of maternal monitoring on perceived happiness of 12- and 13-year-old adolescents in the Taiwan Birth Cohort Pilot Study dataset (n = 1,457). The Chinese Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was used to measure the adolescents' self-perceived levels of happiness, in two dimensions of social adaptation status and psychological well-being. Our results show that 354 (24.3%) of the 12-year-olds reported having been bullied, and 289 (19.8%) of the 13-year-olds reported this. Seventy-nine (5.4%) of 13-year-olds reported deliberate self-harm in the past year. Results of a structural equation model showed that those who had been bullied at age 12 years were at greater risk of deliberate self-harm at age 13 years. A negative association was found between duration of internet use and perceived level of happiness. Adolescents who spent >5 h online during days off school were at higher risk of deliberate self-harm, and perceived a lower level of happiness. Therefore, spending >5 h online during days off school could be used as an indicator in future preventive action programs to screen out those at a high risk of excessive internet use, deliberate self-harm, and psychological well-being and social adjustment issues.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Pathway relationships among maternal monitoring, bullying, internet use, deliberate self-harm and self-perceived happiness.
AGFI: adjusted goodness-of-fit; RMSEA: root mean square error of approximation
Fig 2
Fig 2. Pathway relationships among maternal monitoring, bullying, internet use >5 h/day, deliberate self-harm and self-perceived happiness.
AGFI: adjusted goodness-of-fit; RMSEA: root mean square error of approximation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Publication types

Grants and funding

YES-This study was funded by Health Promotion Administration (grant number MOHW106-HPA-M-114-114701). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.