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Parental Autonomy Granting, Peer Attachment and Problematic Internet Use Among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of School Climate

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Abstract

While the correlation between parental autonomy granting and adolescents’ problematic Internet use (PIU) has been confirmed, the processes underlying this connection have not been thoroughly investigated. Drawing on the ecological systems theory, this study sought to investigate the mediating mechanism of peer attachment and the moderating mechanism of school climate that link parental autonomy granting to PIU. A two-wave longitudinal design was employed with a time interval of six months. The participants were 852 adolescents who attended three middle schools located in Guangdong Province, China. Self-report questionnaires were used to obtain data on demographics, parental autonomy granting, peer attachment, school climate, and PIU. The findings indicated that peer attachment significantly mediated the link between parental autonomy granting and adolescent PIU. A positive school climate significantly moderated the influence of parental autonomy granting on peer attachment and the influence of peer attachment on PIU. Specifically, the association between parental autonomy granting and peer attachment and the association between peer attachment and PIU were more pronounced when the school climate was perceived to be positive. This research underscores the possible significance of peer attachment in the association between parental autonomy granting and PIU and offers valuable insights for mitigating the negative outcomes of PIU.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the figshare repository, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24953646.

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Funding

The work was supported by the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities (Grant Number: 22JJD190008) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 32071067).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Adolescent Psychology and Behavior, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Higher Education Mega Center, No. 230 Outer Ring West Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

    Yu-Qi Wu, Pei Chen, Sheng-Nan Li, Xin-Yi Huang & Yan-Gang Nie

  2. Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Yan-Gang Nie

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  1. Yu-Qi Wu
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Contributions

Yu-Qi Wu: Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing, Methodology, Formal analysis. Pei Chen: Conceptualization, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing. Sheng-Nan li: Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing. Xin-Yi Huang: Writing-review & editing. Yan-Gang Nie: Data curation, Validation, Supervision, Funding acquisition. The manuscript has been approved by all authors for publication.

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Correspondence to Yan-Gang Nie.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical Approval

This research was conducted according to the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The ethics committee of Guangzhou University (No. GZHU 2019012) granted approval. Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study. Participants were informed that their participation was voluntary, and all their responses were confidential.

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Wu, YQ., Chen, P., Li, SN. et al. Parental Autonomy Granting, Peer Attachment and Problematic Internet Use Among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of School Climate. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-024-01687-1

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