Anxiety-related coping styles, social support, and internet use disorder
peer-reviewed
Erstveröffentlichung
2019-09-24Authors
Jung, Sonja
Sindermann, Cornelia
Li, Mei
Wernicke, Jennifer
Quan, Ling
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Published in
Frontiers in Psychiatry ; 10 (2019). - Art.-Nr. 640. - eISSN 1664-0640
Link to original publication
https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00640Faculties
Fakultät für Ingenieurwissenschaften, Informatik und PsychologieInstitutions
Institut für Psychologie und PädagogikExternal cooperations
Beijing UniversityUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Asia University
China Medical University
Document version
published version (publisher's PDF)Abstract
Objective: The Internet can offer a seemingly safe haven for those being disappointed
by relationships in the “offline world”. Although the Internet can provide lonely people
with opportunities to seek for help and support online, complete withdrawal from the
offline world comes with costs. It is discussed if people can even become “addicted” to
the Internet. Of note, meanwhile, many researchers prefer the term Internet use disorder
(IUD) instead of using the term “Internet addiction”. To illustrate the importance of one’s
own social network supporting a person in everyday life, we investigated, for the first time
to our knowledge, how social resources in terms of quality and quantity might represent
a buffer against the development of IUD. Furthermore, anxiety related coping styles are
investigated as a further independent variable likely impacting on the development of
an IUD.
Method: In the present work, N = 567 participants (n = 164 males and n = 403 females;
Mage = 23.236; SDage = 8.334) filled in a personality questionnaire assessing individual
differences in cognitive avoidant and vigilant anxiety processing, ergo, traits describing
individual differences in everyday coping styles/modes. Moreover, all participants provided
information on individual differences in tendencies toward IUD, the perceived quality of
social support received, and the size of their social network (hence a quantity measure).
Results: Participants with larger social networks and higher scores in the received social
support reported the lowest tendencies toward IUD in our data. A vigilant coping style
was positively correlated with tendencies toward IUD, whereas no robust associations
could be observed between a cognitive avoidant coping style and tendencies toward
IUD. Hierarchical linear regression underlined an important predictive role of the interaction
term of vigilance in ego-threat scenarios and perceived quality of social support.
Conclusion: The current study not only yields support for the hypothesis that the
size of one’s own social network as well as the perceived quality of social support
received in everyday life present putative resilience factors against developing IUD. It
also supports the approach that special coping styles are needed to make use of the
social support offered.
Publication funding
Open-Access-Förderung durch die Universität Ulm
Is supplemented by
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00640/full#supplementary-materialSubject headings
[GND]: Online-Sucht[LCSH]: Internet addiction | Social networking
[MeSH]: Social media | Internet | Behavior, Addictive
[Free subject headings]: Addiction | Internet use disorder | Social support | Social network | Vigilance
[DDC subject group]: DDC 150 / Psychology
Metadata
Show full item recordDOI & citation
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18725/OPARU-35669
Jung, Sonja et al. (2021): Anxiety-related coping styles, social support, and internet use disorder. Open Access Repositorium der Universität Ulm und Technischen Hochschule Ulm. http://dx.doi.org/10.18725/OPARU-35669
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