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Anxiety/Depression and Internet Addiction: Directions, Antecedents, and Outcomes

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This paper aims to review the existing literature on the relationships between anxiety/depression and Internet addiction and their common risk factors, protective factors, and developmental outcomes.

Recent Findings

In the literature, three types of relationships have been revealed between anxiety/depression and Internet addiction, namely, anxiety/depression → Internet addiction, Internet addiction → anxiety/depression, and the bidirectional directions between them. Some personal characteristics such as neuroticism, shyness, low self-esteem, and low self-control and environmental factors such as childhood maltreatment and peer victimization may place individuals at increased risks of anxiety/depression and Internet addiction, but other psychological factors may prevent individuals from this. Anxiety/depression and Internet addiction exert a negative influence on individuals’ development.

Summary

Anxiety/depression and Internet addiction have some common risk factors and outcomes and the relationships between them were unidirectional and bidirectional. Longitudinal studies with more time points are needed to examine the relationships between anxiety/depression and Internet addiction.

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Data Availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Funding

This study is funded by the program “The Influence of Cumulative Risk Factors on Mental Health of Left-behind Children in Urban–Rural Areas of Chongqing and the Related Interventions (2021WT3),” by “The Research Innovation Program of Graduate Students in Chongqing (CYB23097),” and by China Scholarship Council.

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  1. Center for Mental Health Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    JingJing Gu, Pingping Zhan, Zhaofei Huang, Shanfang Cheng, Jialing Liu, Wei Xu, Lan Huang, Ying Xu & Jin-Liang Wang

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J.J.G wrote the main manuscript. P.P.Z., Z.F.H., S.F.C., J.L.L., W.X., L.H., Y.Y. contributed equally to this manuscript. J.L.W supervised this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jin-Liang Wang.

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Pingping Zhan, Jialing Liu, Wei Xu, Shanfang Cheng, Lan Huang, Zhaofei Huang, and Ying Xu contributed equally to this paper.

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Gu, J., Zhan, P., Huang, Z. et al. Anxiety/Depression and Internet Addiction: Directions, Antecedents, and Outcomes. Curr Addict Rep (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-024-00565-z

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