ABSTRACT
Objective@#To explore the mediating effect of anxiety, insomnia, and family cohesion between Internet addiction and non suicidal self injury (NSSI) behavior among junior and senior school students, so as to develop interventions to promote adolescent mental health.@*Methods@#A total of 3 026 junior and senior school students from Yixing, Jiangsu Province, China, were selected by stratified cluster sampling from December 2022 to February 2023, and were administered the Ottawa Self injury Inventory (OSI), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), Family Environment Scale-Chinese Version (FES-CV), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Chinese Internet Addiction Scale Revised (CIAS-R). A mediating effect model was constructed to analyze the mediating effect of anxiety, insomnia, and family cohesion on Internet addiction and NSSI.@*Results@#Internet addiction ( r = 0.24), insomnia ( r =0.28), and anxiety ( r =0.27) were positively correlated with NSSI, while the latter was negatively correlated with family cohesion ( r =-0.23) ( P <0.01). The mediating effect model was well fitted ( CFI=0.999, TLI=0.978, RMSEA = 0.030 ). Anxiety (mediation effect value:0.12, 95% CI =0.08-0.18) and family cohesion (mediation effect value:0.08, 95% CI = 0.03 -0.13) had a separate mediating effect. A chain meditating effect was found in the case of anxiety and insomnia (mediation effect value:0.14, 95% CI =0.10-0.20), family cohesion and anxiety (mediation effect value:0.05, 95% CI =0.03-0.07), family cohesion and insomnia (mediation effect value:0.05, 95% CI =0.03-0.07), and family cohesion, anxiety, and insomnia (mediation effect value:0.06, 95% CI =0.04-0.08). The mediating effect accounted for 14.9%, 10.1%, 17.5%, 6.0%, 5.6%, and 7.1%, respectively.@*Conclusions@#Anxiety, insomnia, and family cohesion partially mediate Internet addiction and NSSI. Schools and families should pay attention to Internet addiction among junior and senior school students and develop appropriate interventions to promote adolescent mental health, so as to reduce the prevalence of NSSI.