Yue Wang
Weiyi Tang
Lei Cao
Ying Li- School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Introduction: As the epidemic spreads, the problem of Internet addiction disorder (IAD) stand out and getting serious. The present study aimed to investigate IAD among junior high school students during the spread of the COVID-19, and to explore the mediating role of cognitive failure between self-concept clarity and IAD, and the moderating role of mindfulness.
Methods: A sample of 1,153 junior high school students from two randomly selected junior high schools in Henan Province were surveyed anonymously with Self-concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Internet Addiction disorder Test (IAT). The sample was obtained through random cluster sampling, taking classes as the clusters and students as the elements.
Results: (1) Self-concept clarity was negatively correlated with Internet addiction disorder; (2) Self-concept clarity not only had a direct effect on Internet addiction disorder, but also indirectly affect Internet addiction disorder through cognitive failure; (3) Mindfulness moderates the relationship between self-concept clarity and Internet addiction disorder, as well as the relationship between cognitive failure and Internet addiction disorder. Compared with low levels of mindfulness, both the protective effect of self-concept clarity and the effect of cognitive failure on Internet addiction disorder were stronger among junior high school students who were at high levels of mindfulness.
Conclusion: This study constructs a moderated mediation model to explain the effect of self-concept clarity on Internet addiction disorder. It is effective to alleviate Internet addiction disorder by improving self-concept clarity and mindfulness level of the junior school students.
Introduction
The Internet has played an important role in people's lives and work, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a public health emergency brought about a sharp increase in the number of behavioral addictions (1). Behavioral addictions, especially Internet addiction disorder, have become more prominent among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic (2). In order to deal with the spread of the virus, various countries and regions have launched different strategies, such as reducing aggregation, locking down cities, shutdown or home office, school suspension or e-learning. Although these measures are meant to protect people from the virus, they also bring new problems, especially Internet addiction disorder among teenagers. During the pandemic, they need to temporarily stop the traditional face-to-face learning and rely more on online distance learning. Since online learning is generally unsupervised, it is easy for teenagers to indulge in Internet surfing or games. Moreover, adolescents' self-awareness and personality have not yet developed well, and it has not been fully developed in their self-control ability. Coupled with the attraction of the Internet world, teenagers are always a high incidence group of Internet addiction disorder (3). At the same time, due to the fear of viruses and the depression and stress caused by uncertainty, junior high school students tend to seek sense of security from cyberspace (4). With the increasing number of minors using the network, Low age in the problem of Internet addiction disorder gets worse with each passing day (5). Previous researches provided a global internet addiction disorder prevalence of 7.02%, and the prevalence was 7.7% in Chinese middle school students (6).
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is defined as the loss of control over Internet use (7, 8) leads to a series of physical and mental health and social adaptation problems in everyday life, such as decreased sleep quality, decreased academic performance, interpersonal tension and many other negative effects (9). In view of the negative effects of IAD, it is particularly urgent to solve the problem of IAD among teenagers. The society is paying much attention to the IAD of college students, many researches were done from different kinds of fields. In this context, it is necessary to explore the influencing factors and psychological mechanism of middle school students' IAD, which has practical significance to reduce and solve the problem of IAD.
Self-concept clarity is a structured self-concept, which refers to an individual's confidence and clarity in self-evaluation and self-knowledge (10). The influencing factors of IAD is still a topic ongoing and under investigation, and self-concept clarity is one of the most important factors. Previous studies with adult subjects have found that self-concept clarity is significantly and negatively associated with IAD. Specifically speaking, low level of self-concept clarity may result in Internet-dependent behaviors and eventually it becomes an addiction (11, 12). The reason is that individuals with low self-concept clarity usually show more inferiority and introversion, pay too much attention to the inner world, and do not have a comprehensive understanding of their own abilities. Therefore, they are more likely to indulge in alternative satisfaction through the Internet (13). It was found that the level of self-concept clarity of middle school students was slightly lower than the theoretical mean level (14). Some studies have found that adolescents with a low level of self-concept clarity typically have more negative coping styles, poorer interpersonal relationships, and exhibit more anxiety and depression (15). Evidence from relevant reviews have suggested that there is a significant correlation between self-concept clarity and IAD, but few studies have examined whether this relationship is the same for junior middle school students. Adolescents are more curious but lack mature cognitive control, self-regulatory, and more likely to suffer from environmental adjustment, and other life events. Based on this, this paper will take junior high school students as the research object to explore the impact of their self-concept clarity on IAD.
Mediating role of cognitive failures
Cognitive failure refers to perceptual, memory or motor lapses that occur in daily life, as well as multiple aspects of subjective cognitive failures—including decision-making, attention, and memory (16). Generally speaking, individuals with low self-concept clarity tend to experience more negative emotions and lower self-evaluation (17). According to Conservation of Resources Theory, individuals with low self-evaluations are inclined to accumulate negative emotions and thus consume more cognitive resources. Excessive self-concern and negative emotions also make it difficult for individuals to allocate cognitive resources effectively when dealing with daily life events, which leads to cognitive failure (18). The results of several empirical studies confirm the relationship between self-concept clarity and cognitive failure (19). For example, social anxiety is alleviated as adolescents' self-concept clarity improves. Hence, low self-concept clarity is significant factor in causing individual social anxiety (20), while social anxiety is widely recognized as one of the important causes of cognitive failure (21). Specifically, compared with high self-concept clarity, individuals with low self-concept clarity are unable to correctly deal with the negative effects of social anxiety and are prone to self-attrition, which caused ultimately cognitive failure (22). In addition, there is a distinct link between cognitive failure and IAD. Cognitive failure contribute to the reduction of cognitive resources, which results in competition between the needs of daily activities and the excessive use of the Internet, and IAD is easy to occur under competitive conditions (23). Unsworth et al. noted that individuals with cognitive failure have less working memory capacity and poorer cognitive control, which makes them more susceptible to the temptation of the Internet (24). Since individuals can compensate for their failure behaviors in daily life through the Internet (25), which will further promote the frequency and time of using the Internet and increase the likelihood of IAD.
Moderating role of mindfulness
However, not all the individuals with low self-concept clarity and high cognitive failure necessarily lead to serious psychological or behavioral problems. It has found that there are individual differences in the negative effects of self-concept clarity and cognitive failure on adolescents, that is, such effects may be moderated by individual characteristics and then affect individual behavior (26). Mindfulness as an individual trait refers to an open, accepting attitude in which individuals purposefully and non-judgmentally direct their attention to current experiences (27–29). Mindfulness may reduce the negative effects of cognitive failure (30). According to the two-factor model of mindfulness, mindfulness emphasizes the individual's ability to pay attention to current experiences non-judgmentally. It can help individuals perceive things more comprehensively and objectively (31). Moreover, A large number of studies have found that mindfulness has a relatively positive impact on individual self-development, physical health, cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems (30, 32), also confirmed the protective effect of mindfulness on addictive behaviors (33–36). Mindfulness may provide individuals the ability to self-regulate their emotional and reduce their responses to potentially emotional and stressful stimuli by improving awareness (37). For example, mindfulness intervention for college students can effectively reduce their mobile phone dependence (38). However, existing results are still controversial, with some studies suggesting that mindfulness does not always have “ideal” effects (39, 40). Dubow et al. examined the contribution of particular stressors and resources to children's adjustment and found that peer support not only did not alleviate but exacerbated the effect of stressors on behavioral maladjustment (41). Although mindfulness can positively influence individual behavior, its protective effect has some limitations. In other words, while positive traits such as mindfulness are protective, it is not known whether they can protect individuals against the negative effects of risk factors such as cognitive failure. The effect of mindfulness on self-concept definition and IAD needs further research.
The present study
In this study, we aimed to explore the association between self-concept clarity and IAD. Therefore, we constructed a moderated mediation model to test the mediating effect of cognitive failure on self-concept clarity and IAD, as well as the moderating effect of mindfulness (see Figure 1). Specifically, we proposed the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Self-concept clarity is negatively correlated with IAD.
Hypothesis 2 (H2): Cognitive failures mediates the relationship between self-concept clarity and IAD.
Hypothesis 3 (H3): Mindfulness moderates the relationship between self-concept clarity and IAD, as well as the relationship between cognitive failure and IAD.
Figure 1. Proposed research model.
Methods
Participants and procedure
The participants are students from three grades in two randomly selected junior high schools in Henan Province. The sample was obtained through random cluster sampling, taking classes as the clusters and students as the elements. A total of 1,400 questionnaires were distributed, and the data from 1,153 (82.36%) participants were collected. Of these participants, 610 (52.9%) participants were female and 543 (47.1%) were male, 387 of them are first-year students, 274 of them are second-year students, 492 of them are third-year students. Participants' age ranged from 11 to 17 years, with a mean age of 13.84 ± 2.82 years. Informed consent was obtained from all participants and no compensation was provided to participants. Comparing the structures of the population and he sample, the main relevant indicators of the sample were consistent with the overall structure of the junior high schools population, indicating good sample representativeness.
The study was conducted in a classroom setting, and the entire process was conducted by a trained psychology student who used uniform instructions prior to administration, and the questionnaire was completed anonymously and collected on the spot upon completion.
Measures
Self-concept clarity
We used Campbell et al.'s Self-Concept Clarity Scale (10). This is a 12-item scale on the 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. A sample item is “My beliefs about myself often conflict with one another.” In this study, the internal consistency of the SCCS was 0.68.
Cognitive failures
The CFQ consists of 25 items assessing five dimensions of cognitive failures: distractibility, memory, interpersonal, blunders, motor coordination, and memory for names. Items are scores on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = never, to 5 = always. Higher scores indicate increasing
behavioral errors caused by cognitive distortions. Sample items include: “I found myself suddenly wondering if I had just worded it correctly”; “I don't know what I want to say”; and “Can't tell left from right when giving directions.” In the present study, the Cronbach's α coefficient of this scale was 0.92.
Mindfulness attention awareness scale
The MAAS is a 15-item measure of mindfulness. Items are rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = almost always, to 6 = almost never. Sample items include: “I can't focus very well on what's happening at the moment”; “I always complete a task mechanically and without consciousness”; and “I would focus too much on the future or the past”. Higher scores represent higher levels of mindfulness. In our study, the Cronbach's α coefficient of scores from this scale was 0.86.
Internet addiction disorder
In order to measure IAD, we used Young's (7) Internet Addiction disorder Questionnaire. This questionnaire has been widely used in various studies and has already been translated to other languages, such as Chinese, Norwegian and Italian. Respondents are asked to rank their responses on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 1, “completely untrue,” to 4, “completely true.” In the current study, the Cronbach alpha for the entire scale was 0.87.
Data analysis
All data analyses were conducted using SPSS 21.0. First, we computed descriptive statistics and performed correlation analysis of the variables. Second, a simple mediation analysis of cognitive failures mediating the relationship between role self-concept clarity and IAD was tested using Hayes's PROCESS macro for SPSS(Model 4). Third, a moderated mediation analysis was conducted using Hayes' PROCESS macro (Model 15) to test the moderating role of mindfulness in direct and indirect effects of cognitive failures on IAD in the mediation model. The indirect effect of mediation was tested using a bootstrapping method with 5,000 samples as recommended, with a significant effect indicated by a 95% confidence interval not including zero.
Results
Common-method variance test
An explanatory factor analysis (EFA) including all variables using unrotated principal components factor analysis was performed to statistically verify the presence of CMV. The results revealed that 13 factors had eigenvalues >1, and the general factor accounted for only 23.48% of the total variance, which did not exceed the critical value of 40%.It concluded that CMV was not a concern.
Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis
Table 1 lists the means and standard deviation of the study variables and their correlations. The results indicate that IAD had significant positive correlations with cognitive failures, and had significant negative correlation with self-concept clarity and mindfulness. Cognitive failures had significant negative correlation with self-concept clarity. Besides, age and gender were significantly correlated with some variable. Therefore, both were treated as control variables in the subsequent analysis.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables.
Testing for mediating effect
Table 2 shows the results of mediating effect of cognitive failures. Self-concept clarity had a significant negative effect on IAD (β = −0.26, t = −9.52, p < 0.001), and on cognitive failures (β = −0.24, t = −8.60, p < 0.001). When the mediating variable cognitive failures was added, the direct effect of self-concept clarity on IAD was still significant (β = −0.16, t = −6.68, p < 0.001), indicating partial meditation. Cognitive failures had a significant positive effect on IAD (β = 0.44, t = 16.87, p < 0.001).
Table 2. Testing the mediation effect of self-concept clarity on IAD through cognitive failures.
Further bootstrapping results showed cognitive failures partially mediated the relationship between self-concept clarity and IAD, with an indirect effect accounting for 40.28% of the total effect.
Testing for moderated mediation
In our proposed moderation mediation model, we hypothesized that mindfulness would moderate direct and indirect effects of cognitive failures on IAD in the mediation model. Table 3 shows the results of such moderation mediation analysis using Model 15 of PROCESS macro by Hayes. After mindfulness was put into the model, self-concept clarity had a significant negative effect on cognitive failures (β = −0.24, t = −8.60, p < 0.001), cognitive failures had significant positive effect on IAD (β = 0.34, t = 10.41, p < 0.001), and self-concept clarity had a significant negative effect on cognitive failures (β = −0.14, t = −5.31, p < 0.001. In addition, the product of self-concept clarity and mindfulness had a significant positive effect on IAD (β = 0.06, t = 2.71, p < 0.01), and the product of cognitive failures and mindfulness had a significant positive effect on IAD (β = 0.06, t = 2.71, p < 0.01), indicating that social support moderated the direct effect of self-concept clarity and indirect effects of cognitive failures.
Table 3. Testing the moderated mediation effect of mindfulness on the relation between self-concept clarity and IAD via cognitive failures.
To better interpret the moderating effects of mindfulness, we examined the simple effects of both cognitive failures on IAD and self-concept clarity on IAD, at different levels of mindfulness (1 SD below the mean and 1 SD above the mean). Simple slope tests showed that the association between self-concept clarity and IAD was stronger for individuals with low mindfulness (β = −0.20, t = −5.71, p < 0.001) than for individuals with high mindfulness (β = −0.08, t = −2.25, p < 0.05) (see Figure 2). Similarly, the association between cognitive failures and IAD was stronger for individuals with high mindfulness (β = 0.40, t = 9.81, p < 0.001) than for individuals with low mindfulness (β = 0.28, t = 7.54, p < 0.001) (see Figure 3).
Figure 2. The interaction between self-concept clarity and mindfulness on IAD.
Figure 3. The interaction between cognitive failures and mindfulness on IAD.
Discussion
This study explored the effect of self-concept clarity on IAD among junior middle school students during THE COVID-19 pandemic in China. The mechanism for this effects is briefly discussed. We found that self-concept clarity negatively predicted IAD, confirming the mediating role of cognitive failure and the moderating role of mindfulness.
Self-concept clarity predicted IAD
Consistent with hypothesis 1, the lower the self-concept of junior middle school students, the more serious the IAD behavior. In other words, Self-concept clarity can significantly negatively predict IAD of junior high school students, which is consistent with previous research conclusions (11, 42). According to uncertainty-identity theory, uncertainty about the self is aversive and uncomfortable, and that uncertainty can cause negative emotional and cognitive responses, so people always try to reduce, control, or avoid the occurrence of self-uncertainty (43). Previous research has pointed out that higher self-concept clarity is an important indicator of adolescents' social adjustment, and adolescents with higher self-concept clarity also generally have higher levels of wellbeing and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness (44). The presence of these negative Emotion make adolescents with lower self-concept clarity tend to find “safe havens” in the Internet. According to the compensatory Internet use hypothesis, it is known that the network allows them to experience a sense of achievement or a sense of identity (25). Previous research has shown that instant gratification are important to individuals with low self-concept clarity and they are largely unwilling to delay gratification (45). In order to compensate for real life problems, junior high school students with low self-concept clarity tend to seek more internet resources such as online information, games or socialization (13, 25, 46). Couple with their own immature thinking and poor self-control, they have difficulty in resisting the temptation of the Internet. Compared to normal times, adolescents who use the Internet for long periods of time during the pandemic are more likely to develop addictive behaviors than in normal times (11). The results provide a new perspective to explain the Internet addictive behaviors of junior high school students in special periods, reveal the underlying causes of Internet addictive behaviors, and suggest that further attention should be paid to the negative effects of the lack of self-concept clarity on junior high school students.
The mediating role of cognitive failures
As expected, cognitive failures partially mediated the relationship between self-concept clarity and IAD, supporting our hypotheses 2. Junior high school students with lower self-concept clarity tend to be more prone to cognitive failure, which leads to IAD.
For the first path of the mediation process, we found that self-concept clarity was negatively linked to cognitive failure. On the one hand, if junior high school students have a clear understanding of self-concept, they will have higher self-evaluation and more positive emotional experience, which will help them allocate cognitive resources more rationally and effectively in the face of daily life events (46) and reduce cognitive failure in daily life. Conversely, negative self-evaluation enhances the activation of idiosyncratic failure episodes, leading to the preferential retrieval of this part of the individual's memory events. Therefore, individuals with lower self-concept clarity are less likely to take effective measures to cope with events, and ultimately leading to cognitive failure (18, 47). On the other hand, studies have shown that individuals' self-concept clarity is significantly negatively correlated with neuroticism (N) (48), while individuals with high neuroticism are more prone to cognitive failure, and they are more likely to ignore task-related information and be easily disturbed by task-unrelated information (49). According to the mental noise hypothesis of neuroticism, individuals with high neuroticism are more susceptible to psychological noise, which affects executive function and ultimately result in cognitive failure, than individuals with low neuroticism (50).
For the second path of the mediation process, this study indicated that cognitive failure was positively related to IAD, which supported the previous researches (51). The results, to a certain extent, validate the hypothesis of compensatory Internet use. According to this hypothesis, the junior high school students with high level of cognitive failure did not take the right way to cope with the failures they experienced in daily life in time, but re-experienced “compensatory success” through the pathological compensation of frequent Internet use (52). This undesirable cycle will eventually lead to IAD (25). Individuals with high cognitive failure are characterized by inefficiency of executive functioning and high trait impulsivity (53), which makes them more likely perform high-risk behaviors such as pathological gambling and risky sexual behavior (54). Besides, substance-related addictions is more severe and persistent in individuals with high cognitive failure (55). And there are many similarities between behavioral additions and substance-related addictions such as comorbidity, genetics, and neurobiological mechanisms (56). Studies have shown that individuals with high levels of attentional inattention and attentional lapses in daily life generalize this tendency to cell phone use, producing problematic cell phone use behaviors, such as using their phones for longer than they expect, continuously browsing for information without purposes, and repeatedly checking their phones (57). It not only supports the compensatory Internet use hypothesis of Conservation of Resources Theory, but also confirms the mediating role of cognitive failure between self-concept clarity and IAD.
The moderating role of mindfulness
A higher level of perceived stress of the COVID-19 pandemic might lead to a sharp increase in the number of mental health problem, such as post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion and depression (58). At the same time, previous researches suggested that mindfulness training can play a significant role in relieving pain, improving cognition and regulating emotions by improving people's level of mindfulness (59, 60). It will help junior high school students respond to the outside world in a more flexible way, thus avoiding Internet addiction (61). Our study further found mindfulness moderated the indirect association between self-concept clarity and IAD among junior high school students through cognitive failure during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting our hypotheses 3. To be specific, in terms of the direct effect, the protective effect of high self-concept clarity on IAD increased with the level of mindfulness, which is consistent with most previous studies (62, 63). Junior high school students with high levels of mindfulness are able to confront their own characteristics, and they are not obsessed by their deficiencies and focuses on current experiences. Therefore, junior high school students with high level of mindfulness can concentrate on their studies on their studies without interference, thus avoiding IAD (64). According to the mindfulness reperceiving model, “perception” helps individuals to accept life events in a more objective way (65). Mindfulness is a significant protective factor of self-efficacy and sense of security (66), which will help students cope with the various stressors around them. If students are able to cope with stress effectively, the negative effects of IAD will be gradually mitigated accordingly.
The result also suggested Mindfulness moderated the relationships between cognitive failures and IAD. To be specific, compared with low levels of mindfulness, the effect of cognitive failure on IAD was stronger among junior high school students who were at high levels of mindfulness. There may be two reasons for this: First, the impact of cognitive failure is far-reaching. Junior high school students with high cognitive failure hardly experience “success” in their daily lives, and the “compensatory success” given by the online world makes them feel they can handle their own lives. Second, Individuals with cognitive failure generally have fewer cognitive resources, and mindfulness requires individuals to detach from their experience and accept the event objectively, which still takes up a lot of cognitive resources of junior high school students. In this way, the two processes compete for cognitive resources which increase the likelihood of cognitive failure (67, 68). While the results of this study not only provide some evidence that mindfulness is a protective factor for IAD, they also suggest that risk factors may undermine the positive effects of protective factors in the association between different factors (69). This result suggests that the interaction between mindfulness and other individual and social contextual factors should be taken into account when exploring the influence of mindfulness on IAD, so as to analyze the positive effects of mindfulness more comprehensively and objectively.
Implications
The findings of this study provide a new perspective for the prevention, intervention and treatment of junior high school student's IAD. Firstly, consistent with other research, our findings suggest that self-concept clarity is a significant factor for IAD. This result indicates that intervention targeting avoiding IAD should start with improving students' self-concept clarity, which may be realized through the discussion of self-concept. For example, teachers can set up an interactive platform for students to freely talk about the hot issues in the society and guide them to learn more about themselves. Schools can provide group psychotherapy to enhance students' sense of self-awareness. Secondly, given that cognitive failure is a significant mediator linking self-concept clarity and IAD, avoiding cognitive failure may be another helpful and efficient measure to avoid IAD. For instance, psycho-social interventions aimed at focusing limited cognitive resources on academic activities and preventing intrusions of task-irrelevant information may best serve the purpose of avoiding IAD. Finally, although the protective effect of mindfulness has some limitations, it can positively influence individual behavior. Improving the level of mindfulness may also greatly help junior high school students avoid IAD. Specifically, school activities can be implemented and improved to enhance junior high school students' mindfulness level. For example, schools can provide group psychotherapy for students to increase mindfulness levels in adolescents, improve their cognitive style. Teachers can also offer psychology classes for students to teacher them interventions such as mindfulness-based and cognitive behavioral training. Because the Coronavirus is strongly contagious, compared with face-to-face posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment, Internet-delivered interventions have more advantages in the epidemic (70, 71). As an important part of Internet-delivered interventions, online mindfulness-based interventions could help people concern in the process of inner strengths and abilities and establish close relationships with others (72), which will help junior high school students avoid Internet addiction.
Limitations and future research directions
Although the present study advances our understanding of the mediating and moderating mechanism underlying the association between self-concept clarity and IAD among junior high school students, several limitations need to be acknowledged. First, this survey used a cross-sectional design, which leads to the inability to infer causality. Longitudinal studies could be carried out in the later study to further verify the moderated mediation model. Second, this study only measured individual variables of junior high school students; future studies could take into account environmental factors of junior high school students, such as parenting style and school climate. Third, we over-relied on self-report data, which is susceptible to social desirability bias. Future studies should collect information from multiple informants.
Conclusion
Although some studies attention has been directed toward understanding the effect of self-concept clarity on IAD, less attention has been paid to the mediation and moderation mechanisms underlying such an association among junior high school students. This study suggests that self-concept clarity was associated with IAD both directly and indirectly through cognitive failure, both were further moderated by mindfulness. A high level of mindfulness may increase the protective effect of high self-concept clarity on IAD and the negative predictive effect of cognitive failure on IAD.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent from the participants' legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.
Author contributions
YL and YW contributed to conception and design of the study. LC organized the database. WT performed the statistical analysis. YL and LC wrote the first draft of the manuscript. YW and WT wrote sections of the manuscript, contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.
Funding
This study was supported by the Educational Science Planning Project of Henan Province (Grants No. 2022JKZD32) and project of Humanities and Social Sciences from Ministry of Education in China, 20YJC190023.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
1. Rosenberg L. Addressing trauma in mental health and substance use treatment. J Behav Health Serv Res. (2011) 38:428–31. doi: 10.1007/s11414-011-9256-9
2. Qiu J, Shen B, Zhao M, Wang Z, Xie B, Xu Y. A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: implications and policy recommendations. Gen Psychiatry. (2020) 33:e100213. doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100213
3. Gentile DA, Choo H, Liau A, Sim T, Li D, Fung D, et al. Pathological video game use among youths: A two-year longitudinal study. Pediatrics. (2011) 127:e319–e329. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-1353
4. Muhammad JT, Najma IM, Irfan U, Hamza R, Shahida P, Rodrigo R, et al. Internet addiction and sleep quality among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multinational cross-sectional survey. PloS one. (2021) 16:e0259594.
5. Shader RI. Covid-19 and depression. Clin Ther. (2020) 42:962–3. doi: 10.1016/j.clinthera.2020.04.010
6. Gao M, Teng Z, Wei Z, Jin K, Xiao J, Tang H, et al. Internet addiction among teenagers in a Chinese population:Prevalence, risk factors and its relationship with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. J Psychiatr Res. (2022) 153:134–40. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.003
7. Young KS. Internet addiction: the emergence of a new clinical disorder. Cyberpsychol Behav. (1998) 1:237–44. doi: 10.1089/cpb.1998.1.237
8. Billieux J. Problematic use of the mobile phone: a literature review and a pathways model. Curr Psychiatry Rev. (2012) 8:299–307. doi: 10.2174/157340012803520522
9. Jain L, Andrew L, Jacob EB. Locus of control and cell phone use: Implications for sleep quality, academic performance, and subjective well-being. Comput Human Behav. (2015) 52:450–7. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.021
10. Campbell JD, Trapnell PD, Heine SJ, Katz IM, Lavallee LF, Lehman DR. Self-concept clarity: measurement, personality correlates, and cultural boundaries: correction. J Pers Soc Psychol. (1996) 70:1114. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1114
11. Quinones C, Kakabadse NK. Self-concept clarity and compulsive Internet use: the role of preference for virtual interactions and employment status in British and North-American samples. J Behav Addicit. (2015) 4:289–98. doi: 10.1556/2006.4.2015.038
12. Israelashvili M, Kim T, Bukobza G. Adolescents' over-use of the cyber world – Internet addiction or identity exploration? J Adolesc. (2012) 35:417–24. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.07.015
13. Liu Q, Fang X, Wan J, Zhou Z. Need satisfaction and adolescent pathological internet use: Comparison of satisfaction perceived online and offline. Comput Human Behav. (2016) 55:695–700. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.048
14. Dae-Jung L. Relationships among the degree of participation in physical activity, self-concept clarity, and COVID-19 stress in adolescents. Healthcare. (2021) 9:482. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9040482
15. Liu Q, Zhou Z, Yang X, Kong F, Niu G, Fan C. Mobile phone addiction and sleep quality among Chinese adolescents: a moderated mediation model. Comput Hum Behav. (2017) 72:108–14. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.042
16. Marc JW, Caitlin AB, Kiara RT. The relationship between schizotypal traits and hoarding symptoms: an examination of symptom specificity and the role of perceived cognitive failures. J Affect Disord. (2018) 237:10–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.04.121
17. Wei M, Russell DW, Zakalik RA. Adult attachment, social self-efficacy, self-disclosure, loneliness, and subsequent depression for freshman college students: a longitudinal study. J Couns Psychol. (2005) 52:602–14. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.52.4.602
18. van Doorn RRA, Lang JWB, Weijters T. Self-reported cognitive failures: A core self-evaluation? Pers Individ Dif . (2010) 49:717–22. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.06.013
19. Wallace J, Vodanovich SJ, Restino BM. Predicting cognitive failures from boredom proneness and daytime sleepiness scores: an investigation within military and undergraduate samples. Pers Individ Dif . (2003) 34:635–44. doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00050-8
20. Lusia S, Mike AB, Michelle AL, Colette RH. Constructing a self: The role of self-structure and self-certainty in social anxiety. Behav Res Ther. (2010) 48:955–65. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.05.028
21. Eysenck MW, Derakshan N, Santos R, Calvo MG. Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory. Emotion. (2007) 7:336–53. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
22. Muraven M, Tice DM, Baumeister RF. Self-control as limited resource: regulatory depletion patterns. J Pers Soc Psychol. (1998) 74:774–89. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.74.3.774.zzulib.vpn358.com
23. Hadlington LJ. Cognitive failures in daily life: exploring the link with Internet addiction and problematic mobile phone use. Comput Hum Behav. (2015) 51:75–81. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.036
24. Unsworth N, Brewer G, Spillers JS. Variation in cognitive failures: an individual differences investigation of everyday attention and memory failures. J Mem Lang. (2012) 67:1–16. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2011.12.005
25. Daniel KW. A conceptual and methodological critique of internet addiction research: Towards a model of compensatory internet use. Comput Hum Behav. (2014) 31:351–4. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.059
26. Cicchett D, Garmezy N. Prospects and promises in the study of resilience. Dev Psychopathol. (1993) 5:497–502. doi: 10.1017/S0954579400006118
27. Liu Q, Niu G, Fan C, Zhou Z. Passive use of social network site and its relationships with self-esteem and self-concept clarity: a moderated mediation analysis. Acta Psychol Sin. (2017) 49:60–71. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.00060
28. Bishop SR, Lau M, Shapiro S, Carlson L, Anderson ND, Carmody J, et al. Mindfulness: a proposed operational definition. Clin Psychol Sci. (2004) 11:230–41. doi: 10.1093/clipsy.bph077
29. Xu F, Li Y, Deng Y, Shi Y, Liu C. Mindfulness meditation and addictive behaviors. Adv Psychol Sci. (2016) 24:985–94. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2016.00985
30. Keng SL, Smoski MJ, Robins CJ. Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: a review of empirical studies. Clin Psychol Rev. (2011) 31:1041–56. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2011.04.006
31. Shapiro SL, Carlson LE, Astin JA, Freedman B Mechanisms Mechanisms of mindfulness. J Clin Psychol. (2006) 62: 373–86. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20237
32. Tomlinson ER, Yousaf O, Vitterso AD, Jones L. Dispositional mindfulness and psychological health: a systematic review. Mindfulness. (2018) 9:23–43. doi: 10.1007/s12671-017-0762-6
33. Davis JM, Goldberg SB, Anderson MC, Manley AR, Smith SS, Baker TB. Randomized trial on mindfulness training for smokers targeted to a disadvantaged population. Subst Use Misuse. (2014) 49:571–85. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2013.770025
34. Eric LG, Amelia RL, Karen K, Christine T, Adam H. Cognitive and affective mechanisms linking trait mindfulness to craving among individuals in addiction recovery. Subst Use Misuse. (2014) 49:525–35. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2014.850309
35. Vieten C, Astin JA, Buscemi R, Galloway GP. Development of an acceptance-based coping intervention for alcohol dependence relapse prevention. Subst Abuse. (2010) 31:108–16. doi: 10.1080/08897071003641594
36. Karyadi KA, VanderVeen JD, Cyders MA. A meta-analysis of the relationship between trait mindfulness and substance use behaviors. Drug Alcohol Depend. (2014) 143:1–10. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.07.014
37. Arch JJ, Craske MG. Laboratory stressors in clinically anxious and non-anxious individuals: the moderating role of mindfulness. Behav Res Ther. (2010) 48:495–505. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.02.005
38. Koo HY. Development and Effects of a prevention program for cell phone addiction in middle school students. J Korean Acad Child Health Nurs. (2011) 17:91–9. doi: 10.4094/jkachn.2011.17.2.91
39. Amundsen R, Riby LM, Hamilton C, Hope M, McGann D. Mindfulness in primary school children as a route to enhanced life satisfaction, positive outlook and effective emotion regulation. BMC Psychology. (2020) 8:71. doi: 10.1186/s40359-020-00428-y
40. Collard P, Avny N. Boniwell I. Teaching mindfulness based cognitive therapy (mbct) to students: The effects of mbct on the levels of mindfulness and subjective well-being. Couns Psychol Q. (2008) 21:323–36. doi: 10.1080/09515070802602112
41. Dubow EF, Edwards S, Ippolito MF. Life stressors, neighborhood disadvantage, and resources: a focus on inner-city children's adjustment. J Clin Child Adolesc. (1997) 26:130–44. doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp2602_2
42. Bajaj B, Pande N. Mediating role of resilience in the impact of mindfulness on life satisfaction and affect as indices of subjective well-being. Pers Individ Dif . (2016) 93:63–7. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.005
43. Hogg MA, Adelman J. Uncertainty-identity theory: extreme groups, radical behavior, and authoritarian leadership. J Soc Issues. (2013) 69:436–54. doi: 10.1111/josi.12023
44. Van Dijk MP, Branje S, Keijsers L, Hawk ST, Hale WW 3rd, Meeus W. Self-concept clarity across adolescence: longitudinal associations with open communication with parents and internalizing symptoms. J Youth Adolesc. (2014) 43:1861. doi: 10.1007/s10964-013-0055-x
45. Brookfield S. Self-directed learning, political clarity, and the critical practice of adult education. Adult Educ Q. (1993) 43:227–42.
46. Smith M, Nashville TN, Zhan G. Self-concept clarity and preferred coping styles. J Pers. (1996) 64:407–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00516.x
47. Brewin CR. Understanding cognitive behaviour therapy: a retrieval competition account. Behav Res Ther. (2006) 44:765–84. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2006.02.005
48. Danckert J, Hammerschmidt T, Marty-Dugas J, Smilek D. Boredom: Under-aroused and restless. Conscious Cogn. (2018) 61:24–37. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.03.014
49. Kranjčev M, Vukasović Hlupić T. Personality, anxiety, and cognitive failures as predictors of flow proneness. Pers Individ Dif . (2021) 179:1–6. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110888
50. van Os J, Park SB, Jones PB. Neuroticism, life events and mental health: evidence for person-environment correlation. Br J Psychiatry Suppl. (2001) 40:s72–7. doi: 10.1192/bjp.178.40.s72
51. Robinson MD, Tamir M. Neuroticism as mental noise: a relation between neuroticism and reaction time standard deviations. J Pers Soc Psychol. (2005) 89:107–14. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.89.1.107
52. Zhu H, Yin K, Song Y, Liang Y. The relationship between college students' boredom, subjective well-being, cognitive failure experience and online game addiction. J Dali Univ. (2019) 4:110–5.
53. Markett S, Montag C, Diekmann C, Reuter M. Dazed and confused: a molecular genetic approach to everyday cognitive failure. Neurosci Lett. (2014) 566:216–20. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.02.052
54. Taubman BA. Motivational sources of driving and their associations with reckless driving cognitions and behavior. Rev Eur Psychol Appl. (2008) 58:51–64. doi: 10.1016/j.erap.2005.08.002
55. Hong W, Liu R, Ding Y, Sheng X, Zhen R. Mobile phone addiction and cognitive failures in daily life: The mediating roles of sleep duration and quality and the moderating role of trait self-regulation. Addict Behav. (2020) 107:106383. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106383
56. Li M, Chen J, Li X. Genetic and neurobiological mechanisms of non-drug addictions. Adv Psychol Sci. (2012) 20:1623–32. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2012.01623
57. Marty-Dugas J, Ralph BCW, Oakman JM, Smilek D. The relation between smartphone use and everyday inattention. Psychol Conscious Theory Res Pract. (2018) 5:46–62. doi: 10.1037/cns0000131
58. Liu Q, Wang Z. Perceived stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and adolescents' depression symptoms: the moderating role of character strengths. Pers Individ Differ. (2021) 182:111062. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111062
59. Jon KZ. Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clin Psychol: Sci Pract. (2003) 10:144–56. doi: 10.1093/clipsy.bpg016
60. Ruth AB. Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clin Psychol: Sci Pract. (2003) 10:125–43. doi: 10.1093/clipsy.bpg015
61. Song WJ, Park JW. The influence of stress on internet addiction: Mediating effects of self-control and mindfulness. Int J Ment Health Addict. (2019) 17:1063–75. doi: 10.1007/s11469-019-0051-9
62. Patricia AP, Heather CR, Noriyeh R, Rebecca S, Catherine ES, Taylor H, et al. The relationship between mindfulness, pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, depression, and quality of life among cancer survivors living with chronic neuropathic pain. Support Care Cancer. (2016) 24:4167–75. doi: 10.1007/s00520-016-3243-x
63. Newland P, Bettencourt BA. Effectiveness of mindfulness-based art therapy for symptoms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Clin Pract. (2020) 41:101246. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101246
64. Yang L, Ren Z, Wang X, Li X. Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on college students' mental state and sleep during the epidemic of COVID-19. China J Health Psychol. (2020) 28:1813–7.
65. Brown KW, Ryan RM. The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. J Pers Soc Psychol. (2003) 84:822–48. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822
66. Zeidan F, Gordon NS, Merchant J, Goolkasian P. The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain. J Pain. (2010) 11:199–209. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2009.07.015
67. Rutter M. Resilience reconsidered: Conceptual considerations, empirical findings, and policy implications. Handb Early Child Interv. (2000) 651–82. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511529320.030
68. Ella VA, Daniel SS. Conceptualizing and re-evaluating resilience across levels of risk, time, and domains of competence. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. (2008) 11:30–58. doi: 10.1007/s10567-008-0031-2
69. Wang Y, Li J, Sun W, Zhao L, Lai X, Zhou Y. Parent-child attachment and prosocial behavior among junior high school students: moderated mediation effect. Acta Psychol Sin. (2017) 49:663–79. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.00663
70. Jin Y, Zhang Z, Zheng P, An J. Telepsychology: applications, advantages, and challenges. Adv Psychol Sci. (2022) 30:141–56. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.00141
71. Kazlauskas E. Challenges for providing health care in traumatized populations: barriers for PTSD treatments and the need for new developments. Glob Health Action. (2017) 10:1322399. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2017.1322399
72. Austeja D, Inga TK, Gerhard A, Evaldas K. The effects of online mindfulness-based intervention on posttraumatic stress disorder and complex posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms: A randomized controlled trial with 3-month follow-up. Front Psychiatry. (2022) 13:799259. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.799259
Keywords: junior high school students, Internet addiction disorder, self-concept clarity, cognitive failure, mindfulness
Citation: Wang Y, Tang W, Cao L and Li Y (2022) Self-concept clarity and Internet addiction disorder among junior high school students: A moderate mediation model. Front. Psychiatry 13:989128. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.989128
Received: 08 July 2022; Accepted: 01 August 2022;
Published: 18 August 2022.
Edited by:
Li Wang, Institute of Psychology (CAS), ChinaReviewed by:
Elsa Vitale, Bari Local Health Authority, ItalySupriyadi Supriyadi, Universitas Panca Sakti Bekasi, Indonesia
Copyright © 2022 Wang, Tang, Cao and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Ying Li, bGl5aW5nJiN4MDAwNDA7enp1LmVkdS5jbg==