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. 2022 May;78(5):971-982.
doi: 10.1002/jclp.23264. Epub 2021 Oct 16.

Internet addiction and nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescence: Associations with offline and online social support

Sihan Liu  1   2 , Min-Pei Lin  3 , Yueh-Ting Lee  4 , Jo Yung-Wei Wu  5 , Wei-Hsuan Hu  4 , Jianing You  1
Affiliations

Internet addiction and nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescence: Associations with offline and online social support

Sihan Liu et al. J Clin Psychol. 2022 May.

Abstract

Objectives: Both nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and Internet addiction (IA) are important health issues for adolescents, and social support has been extensively examined as a protective factor for both. This study aims to compare the effect of offline and online social support on IA, and that on NSSI as well.

Method: A total of 1911 Chinese adolescents (53.27% females, Mage = 16.83 ± 0.37) completed self-report questionnaires assessing offline social support, online social support, IA, and NSSI.

Results: The structural equation modeling analysis showed that offline social support was negatively associated with IA and NSSI, while online social support was positively associated with IA and NSSI; IA was positively associated with NSSI. Furthermore, implications for preventions and interventions of IA and NSSI were discussed. The indirect model explained a relatively small variance of NSSI, indicating the possibility of additional factors in the development of NSSI that should be further investigated.

Conclusion: This study indicated the differences between offline and online social support, and their different associations with IA and NSSI.

Keywords: Internet addiction; adolescent; nonsuicidal self-injury; offline social support; online social support.

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