Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Relationships Between the Three Stages of Internet Addiction and Its Risk Factors, and the Mediating Effect of Negative Affect

Che LiuThe Affiliated High School of South China Normal University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Internet addiction has been largely understood as a psychological disorder with severe consequences to individuals. Many of its correlations with potential risk factors like school climate and stress have been discovered and evaluated, yet few studies have applied its three-stage-cycle explanation to these correlations to reach a deeper understanding. This study aims to analyze the effect of risk factors like school climate and perceived stress on each stage of Internet addiction among adolescents, and offer a comparison. The study also examines the mediating effect of negative affect on these correlations, and takes a look at gender differences on this topic. 205 valid questionnaires were collected, assessing the participants by variables of school climate, perceived stress, negative affect, withdrawal and craving symptoms, and Internet addiction severity. Results and analysis demonstrate that the two risk factors were more significantly correlated with changes in severity of the Negative Affect/Withdrawal stage. A significant negative correlation and mediating effect of negative affect was found between school climate and Internet addiction, while no significant ones were found between perceived stress and Internet addiction. No significant differences were found between the two genders. In addition, no significant differences were found between genders. This study suggests potential new research directions of applying theoretical explanations to reach further understandings of Internet addiction, unexpected correlational and gender-related findings also suggest new explanations to the relationships between the different variables.

Keywords: Internet Addiction; Addiction Cycle; Stress; School Climate; Negative Affect
Published: July 4, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.BO24756
Volume: CHR Vol.71
pp. 50-62
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