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Correlation among psychological resilience, loneliness, and internet addiction among left-behind children in China: A cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Internet addiction has rapidly become a prevalent concern among left-behind children in China. Using the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this cross-sectional study aims to investigate the correlation among loneliness, psychological resilience, and Internet addiction, as well as determine whether the adverse impact of loneliness could be buffered by psychological resilience. The findings revealed that loneliness positively correlated with Internet addiction, while psychological resilience negatively correlated with Internet addiction. The moderating effect analysis suggested that resilience could alleviate the adverse impact of loneliness on Internet addiction. Specifically, a statistically significantly positive effect of loneliness was noted on Internet addiction among children with low resilience, whereas no significant association between loneliness and Internet addiction was found among those with a high level of resilience. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the psychosocial mechanisms how loneliness might affect Internet addiction among left-behind children in China.

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Data Availability

The data linking to the present study could be obtained by sending email to cql1086@126.com.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is supported by the project of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in Changzhou University of Jiangsu Province (ZMF19020225) and National Natural Science Foundation Project (71904019).

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Author notes

  1. Qilong Cao, Jing An and Yizhu Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, Changzhou University, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Qilong Cao, Yizhu Yang, Peiyun Peng, Shuying Xu, Xiao Xu & Hongjie Xiang

  2. School of Management, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jing An

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  1. Qilong Cao
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Contributions

CQ and JA drafted the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis. YY and PP conceived of the study and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. XX and XH participated in the design of the study, XS performed the statistical analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qilong Cao.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Cao, Q., An, J., Yang, Y. et al. Correlation among psychological resilience, loneliness, and internet addiction among left-behind children in China: A cross-sectional study. Curr Psychol 41, 4566–4573 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00970-3

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