Positive Psychological Characters and Internet Addiction among Adolescents: A Positive Psychology Perspective

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Background

With the rapid development of the Internet and information technology, the Internet has become an important part of people's life, work, and learning, especially after the pandemic of COVID-19. The Internet is ubiquitous in adolescence: learning, social networking, entertainment, and shopping are all happening online. However, the use of internet also has some adverse effects on adolescent development. In particular, Internet addiction, for example to online games, would affect academic performance, physical and mental development – in some cases, substantial brain damage – of some teenagers. In recent years, researchers have tried to identify the risk factors of Internet addiction and their treatment, but not all internet users would be addicted to the Internet. Therefore, the focal research question is: what are the protective factors for teenagers to effectively leverage the use of the Internet and improve the quality of their personal development, and further, what are the underlying mechanisms?



The Internet, only considered as a tool or platform for teenagers to socialize, study and work, is not evil essentially. Some prior studies have shown the negative effects of the Internet on teenagers, such as heightened Internet Addiction and reduced cognitive ability, however, the fundamental reason lies in the users themselves rather than the Internet. Yet, the literature has rarely considered the hygiene factors (positive psychological characters) among Internet users to curb the above-stated negative effects. To advance theories and research on adolescent Internet addiction, we invite scholars to consider two research directions:

1. Identifying positive psychological characters, including personality, cognition, and emotion that buffers the maladaptive mechanisms for developing adolescent Internet addiction.

2. Providing evidence-based applications to prevent or treat adolescent Internet addiction.



This Research Topic is mainly based on the perspective of positive psychology, such as the self-worth orientation theory, eudemonic well-being model, etc. Positive psychological characters include but are not limited to self-worth, humor, coping style, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and hope. We welcome studies adopting diverse methods, including meta-analysis, big data analysis, longitudinal or experience sampling methods, intervention, experimental manipulation, and physiological and neuroscientific technologies.

Keywords: Internet Addiction, Positive Psychological Characters, buffer effect, Adolescents, strengths

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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