Predictors of excessive internet use among adolescents in Spain: The relevance of the relationship between parents and their children

Abstract

Since the introduction of the concept in the late nineties, Internet addiction has been a growing phenomenon becoming a public health issue that cannot be ignored nowadays. Focusing on adolescents, previous research has analyzed the prevalence of excessive Internet use and determined several predictors such as socio-demographic characteristics, personality traits or emotions. To move on this topic, this paper draws attention to the relationship between parents and their children. Using a nationally representative sample of 37,486 students aged 14-18 years old in Spain, an under researched European country, this study finds that care received from parents [B =-0.141, SE =-0.033] and parents' knowledge about where [B =-0.065, SE =-0.032] and with whom [B =-0.232, SE =-0.032] the adolescent is while he/she goes out at night are associated with lower levels of excessive Internet use. In turn, fixing clear rules does not help reduce excessive Internet use. These results, together with the influence of other control variables, offer important insights and implications to prevent adolescents from excessive Internet use.

Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents from Divorced Families: The Role of Family Factors and Adolescents’ Self-Esteem

“…In several studies with Southeast-Asian samples [ 10 , 24 , 54 ], poor parent–child attachment and a lack of warmth from their parents related to adolescents’ PIU. Similar results were found in adolescents from Spain [ 55 , 56 , 57 ] and Italy [ 58 ]. In a Chinese sample, only the father–child relationship quality was of significance [ 59 ], whereas both maternal and paternal warmth were associated with PIU in Greek adolescents [ 60 ].…”

Internet use and well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak: Examining the role of gender, age, motives for using the internet and relational resources in an Italian adult sample.

“…With regard to gender, previous reviews on technology use reported mixed results (for a review: reported gender differences, with a wealth of research reporting that men are more vulnerable to PIU and to severe symptoms of it compared to women (El Asam, Samara, & Terry 2019;Fumero et al 2018;Kanan et al 2019;Yu et al 2018;Wartberg, Zieglmeier, & Kammerl 2020). However, another group study came to the opposite conclusion, finding higher PIU severity among women (Casaló & Escario 2019;Karaer & Akdemir 2019;Laconi et al 2018), consistently with our findings. It is possible that these different findings are related to different study samples and different types of Internet use examined (e.g., games, social networks, e-commerce sites).…”

Facing Life Problems Through the Internet. The Link Between Psychosocial Malaise and Problematic Internet Use in an Adolescent Sample.

“…Gender specificities should be considered. To date there are no univocal data, with certain studies finding a greater prevalence among boys (Dufour et al, 2016;Durkee et al, 2012), whereas elsewhere girls are higher in PIU (Casaló & Escario, 2019;Machimbarrena et al, 2019; for a review, Baloglu, S¸ahin, & Arpaci, 2020) or even no differences are found (Vigna-Taglianti et al, 2017;Wu et al, 2016b). At any rate, it has been claimed that the use of Internet as a way to handle life issues can be understood considering gender-based characteristics in the ways of using the net: for instance, in using the Internet girls may find an alternative way to talk about their feelings with others, since they are culturally expected to be more ''expressive,'' whereas boys may prefer online interactions as a compensative way to give vent to their emotions since they are expected to be more ''physical'' in face-to-face contexts (Gioia & Boursier, 2019;Yu et al, 2013;Yu, Kim, & Hay, 2013).…”