Mediating Effect of Social anxiety on the Association between Self-esteem and Internet Addiction among Chinese vocational school students

Yunjiao Zhu ¹ Guifang Jin ² Haiyan Shi ² Chenyu Sun ³ Hongyuan Wei ⁴ Linsheng Yang ² Jiahu Hao ⁵ Ying Sun ⁵ Puyu Su ⁵ Xiaoyan Wu ⁵ Xiaowu Tang ^6* Zhihua Zhang ^2*

• ¹ Other, Hangzhou,Zhejiang, China
• ² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
• ³ Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hfei, Anhui Province, China
• ⁴ Anhui Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
• ⁵ Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
• ⁶ Hefei Information Technology University, Hefei, China

In today's digital age, concerns about internet addiction among adolescents have escalated alongside the widespread use of the internet. Simultaneously, research has spotlighted the influence of psychological factors like self-esteem and social anxiety on addictive behaviors. The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis regarding social anxiety as a mediator in the association between self-esteem and internet addiction. A total of 10,158 participants were randomly selected from five vocational schools in Anhui Province, China, with a mean age of 18.5 years. They completed a series of self-administered questionnaires, including the Young Internet Addiction Test (IATS), the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), and the Self-Esteem Scale (SES). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the mediating role of social anxiety between self-esteem and internet addiction, adjusting for demographic variables such as age, gender, and parental education. The correlation analysis revealed that self-esteem was significantly negatively correlated with internet addiction, while social anxiety was significantly positively correlated with internet addiction. The indirect effect of self-esteem on internet addiction through social anxiety was 0.11 (P < 0.01), constituting 28.35% of the total effect. Additionally, the total impact of self-esteem on internet addiction was 0.278 (P < 0.01). Subgroup analyses by age and gender confirmed the robustness of these findings, with significant total effects observed across different age groups (14-18 years: total effects = 0.637; 18-24 years: total effects = 0.744; P<0.01) and genders (male: total effects = 0.385; female: total effects = 0.744; P<0.01). The results indicate that social anxiety plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between self-esteem and internet addiction, affecting both directly and indirectly this association. These findings underscore the importance of addressing self-esteem and social anxiety in interventions aimed at reducing internet addiction among adolescents, suggesting that targeted psychological support could be pivotal in mitigating the risk of developing addictive behaviors online.