Examining the association of family environment and children emotional/behavioral difficulties in the relationship between parental anxiety and internet addiction in youth

Yuxin Wang; Keyin Zhou; Yang Wang; Jing Zhang; Yuanchen Xie; Xin Wang; Wenyi Yang; Xiyan Zhang; Jie Yang; Fei Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1341556

Examining the association of family environment and children emotional/behavioral difficulties in the relationship between parental anxiety and internet addiction in youth

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jun 3:15:1341556. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1341556. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yuxin Wang^{1

2}, Keyin Zhou^{1

3}, Yang Wang^{1

3}, Jing Zhang^{1

3}, Yuanchen Xie^{1

2}, Xin Wang⁴, Wenyi Yang⁴, Xiyan Zhang⁴, Jie Yang⁴, Fei Wang^{1

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Liaoning, China.
² Fourth School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing Medical Universtiy, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
³ Institute of Brain Functional Imaging, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Health Promotion, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
⁵ Department of Mental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Associations between parental anxiety and adolescent internet addiction have been documented in the literature; however, few studies have analyzed the role of the family environment in this relationship. This study aims to explore the relationship between parental anxiety and adolescent internet addiction while also investigating the indirect relationships involving multiple dimensions of the family environment and child emotional behavior issues.

Methods: Surveys were conducted among 6,296 parent-child pairs. We administered SDQ, CIAS-R, and FES-CV to assess adolescents' issues and internet addiction, and evaluate family environment. Additionally, parents completed GAD-7 to assess parental anxiety levels.Results: Correlation analysis revealed that the family environment and adolescent emotional behavior issues played an indirect relationship in the link between parental anxiety and internet addiction.

Discussion: The findings emphasize the importance of addressing parental anxiety and fostering a positive family environment as effective measures to alleviate adolescent emotional behavior problems and reduce the risk of internet addiction.

Keywords: emotional; family environment; internet addiction; parental anxiety; teenager.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (81725005 to FW), Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (BE2021617 to FW), National Natural Science Foundation of China-Guangdong Joint Fund (U20A6005 to FW), Nanjing Medical University Science and Technology Development Fund (NMUB20230205 to WY).