Association Between Specific Internet Activities and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Effects of Loneliness and Depression

Abstract

The current study examined the associations between specific Internet activities (online shopping, pornography use, social networking site use, and Internet gaming), life satisfaction, and the mediating effects of loneliness and depression for these associations. Participants were 5,215 students (2,303 male participants, Mage = 16.20 years; ranging in age from 10 to 23 years) from various school types (546 elementary school students, 1710 junior high school students, 688 senior high school students, and 2271 university students) who provided self-report data on demographic variables, online shopping, pornography use, social networking site use, loneliness, depression, and life satisfaction. The results indicated that after controlling for demographic variables (gender and age) (a) loneliness and depression had fully positive mediating effects on the association between social networking site use and life satisfaction; (b) loneliness and depression played fully negative mediating effects on life satisfaction associations with online shopping, pornography use, and Internet gaming. Therefore, loneliness and depression were the underlying mechanisms that caused life satisfaction to be affected by online shopping, pornography use, social networking site use, and Internet gaming.

Life satisfaction and social anxiety among left‐behind children in rural China: The mediating role of loneliness

“…Similarily, with two groups of Chinese adolescent He et al (2014) found that loneliness partially mediated the relationships between core self-evaluation and life satisfaction, as well as the impact of affect on life satisfaction. In addition, the mediating effect of loneliness in the path from internet activities to life satisfaction was also be revealed by previous empirical investigation (Tian et al, 2018). Based on the literature above, we inferred that loneliness may also perform as a mediator between other similar intrapersonal variables, such as social anxiety, and life satisfaction.…”

“…Similarily, a recent survey conducted with a large number of students showed that loneliness was positively correlated with negative mood such as depression, and positively predicted life satisfaction (Tian et al, 2018).…”

“…For example, Selecting 432 left‐behind middle children from two rural middle schools, Ren et al () and his collegues found that loneliness was positively associated with anxiety, and further played a mediating role between social anxiety and Internet addiction. Similarily, a recent survey conducted with a large number of students showed that loneliness was positively correlated with negative mood such as depression, and positively predicted life satisfaction (Tian et al, ). Moreover, the strong negative impact of loneliness on life satisfaction was also identified from the evidence performed by Kong and You ().…”

“…Loneliness is a subjective feeling of isolation, included in social networks and could affect the individual's well-being (Kong & You, 2013). Previous literature has well established the associations between social anxiety, loneliness, and life satisfaction (e.g., Brunes, Hansen, & Heir, 2019;Kong & You, 2013;Ren, Yang, & Liu, 2017;Tian et al, 2018). For example, Selecting 432 left-behind middle children from two rural middle schools, Ren et al (2017) and his collegues found that loneliness was positively associated with anxiety, and further played a mediating role between social anxiety and Internet addiction.…”

Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf Sexualität und Beziehung

“…Pornografie hat einen nicht unerheblichen Einfluss auf die unbewusste Emotions verarbeitung [23] und verstärkt die Haltung zur Unterstützung von Gewalt gegen Frauen [10,16]. Zudem scheint eine positive Korre lation von Pornokonsum und Angstzuständen [43], Einsamkeit und depressiven Symptomen [44] und einem verminderten Selbstwert gefühl und einer Zunahme an Untreue [25] zu bestehen. Ein starker Konsum von Pornografie kann mit einem verminderten sexuellen Genuss partnerschaftlicher Sexualität einhergehen [40].…”