Deviant peer affiliation as a mediating variable in the relationship between family cohesion and adaptability and internet addiction among adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation in the relationship between family functioning, specifically family cohesion and family adaptability, and internet addiction among Saudi adolescents. A sample of 946 Saudi Arabian adolescents with a mean age of 18.5 years (SD = 3.06) was obtained using snowball sampling. Path analysis using structural equation modeling was conducted. The results indicated significant negative relationships between family cohesion and internet addiction and between deviant peer affiliation and family cohesion, and a significant positive relationship between family adaptability and internet addiction. In accordance with prior research, we found a significant positive relationship between deviant peer affiliation and internet addiction, but in terms of mediation, deviant peer affiliation mediated only the relationship between family cohesion and internet addiction. In conclusion, it is important for the effectiveness of interventions and preventive programs that aim to address deviant peer affiliation and internet addiction in adolescents to enhance the well-being of their family systems.

The Links Among Cumulative Ecological Risk and Smartphone Addiction, Sleep Quality in Chinese University Freshmen: A Two-Wave Study

“…Particularly, peer affiliation has a strong influence on university students 72 , 73 and is a protective factor against smartphone addiction, 18 whereas deviant peer affiliation exacerbates addictive behaviors. 74 …”

The relationship between parental phubbing and mobile phone addiction in junior high school students: A moderated mediation model

“…This is in accordance with previous studies which have shown a positive correlation between terrible family environment and addictive behavior in teenagers (Ko et al, 2007 ; Salimi et al, 2016 ; Chung et al, 2019 ). Adolescents who experience lower family cohesion may be more likely to seek out external attention, including through mobile phones via the Internet (Sarour and El Keshky, 2022 ), as a means of emotional regulation (Park et al, 2008 ), which could lead to over-dependence on mobile phones.…”

“…behavior in teenagers (Ko et al, 2007;Salimi et al, 2016;Chung et al, 2019). Adolescents who experience lower family cohesion may be more likely to seek out external attention, including through mobile phones via the Internet (Sarour and El Keshky, 2022), as a means of emotional regulation (Park et al, 2008), which could lead to over-dependence on mobile phones. Compared to the mediating factor assumed in the prior studies (Niu et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022;Wei et al, 2022a), the mediation of parent-child cohesion underlines the important role of environmental variable instead of personal variable.…”

A Multi-System Approach to Investigate Different Forms of Delinquency in Female Adolescents at Risk: Family, School, and Peers

“…Nevertheless, this does not signify that family has less of an influence on adolescent development [2,19]. In fact, the effects of family socialization are persistent and steadfast, meaning that instead of exerting direct impacts on child development, families may influence their adolescent children indirectly by swaying their methods of interacting with their schools and peer systems [16,46,47]. Thus, as is consistent with the person-in-environment perspective and social systems theory [3,4], human service and public health practitioners should take note of the dynamic and conditional effects of different contextual systems on female adolescent development [2,5,48,49].…”