Internet addiction and college students depression:an analysis of moderating mediating effects / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the mediating role played by college students social anxiety and social support in the relationship between internet addiction and depression.@*Methods@#A cluster random sampling method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 3 536 college students in three higher vocational colleges in Anhui Province. The content included general demographic characteristics, depression, Internet addiction, social support, and social anxiety. The Process program was used to mediate and analysis of regulation.@*Results@#Among the survey subjects, 1 552(43.90%) had depressive symptoms, including 561(45.65%) boys and 991(42.96%) girls.The total score of Internet addiction was significantly positively correlated with depression score(r=0.30, P<0.01); social anxiety(social fear, social avoidance) was positively correlated with depression(r=0.24, 0.27, P<0.01); social support(subjective support, objective support, support utilization) was significantly negatively correlated with depression(r=0.25, -0.23, -0.17, P<0.01). Conditional process analysis shows that social anxiety had a mediating role between internet addiction and depression(c'=0.06, P<0.01), and that Internet addiction and social anxiety were regulated by social support(β=-0.00，P=0.02).@*Conclusion@#By increasing the social support of college students to improve social anxiety, it might help to reduce the depression of college students caused by Internet addiction.