Social relational factors of excessive internet use in four European countries
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Social relational factors of excessive internet use in four European countries Jakub Mikusˇka1 Tijana Milosevic4
•
David Smahel1
•
Lenka Dedkova1
•
Elisabeth Staksrud2
•
Giovanna Mascheroni3
•
Received: 30 April 2020 / Revised: 10 September 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 Ó Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) 2020
Abstract Objectives Adolescents who deal with more emotional problems have been found to seek escape online, and struggle with excessive internet use (EIU). Poor social relationships have been linked with emotional problems. The current study investigated positive family and school relationships as protective factors against emotional problems and a preference for online social interaction (POSI), both specified as mediators of the association of family and school relationships with EIU. Cross-cultural differences in the model were tested. Methods A multi-group SEM was tested on representative samples of 4104 adolescents (Mage = 14.40 years, SD = 1.65, range 12–17, 50% female) from four European countries from Southern, Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe (Italy, Norway, Czech Republic, and Serbia, respectively). Results Results suggested consistent associations across countries. Positive family relationships and positive school relationships were associated with lower EIU, with 63–64% of the effect of family, and 91–93% of the effect of school relationships mediated by emotional problems and POSI. Conclusions Positive family and school relationships protect adolescents against excessive internet usage, regardless of culture and indirectly—through emotional problems and POSI. Keywords Excessive internet use Emotional problems Preference for online social interaction IPARTheory
Introduction This article is part of the special issue ‘‘Adolescent health in Central and Eastern Europe.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01484-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by the increased importance and salience of social relationships (Somerville 2013). In their review, Crone and Dahl (2012) noted that important changes in socio-cognitive development take place in adolescence, when adolescents Tijana Milosevic [email protected]
& Jakub Mikusˇka [email protected] 1
Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
2
Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
3
Department of Communication and Performing Art, Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
4
DCU Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
David Smahel [email protected] Lenka Dedkova [email protected] Elisabeth Staksrud [email protected] Giovanna Mascheroni [email protected]
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