Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep 7:14:1233303.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1233303. eCollection 2023.

Investigating links between Internet literacy, Internet use, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents in the digital age

Qiaolei Jiang  1 , Zonghai Chen  1 , Zizhong Zhang  1 , Can Zuo  2
Affiliations

Investigating links between Internet literacy, Internet use, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents in the digital age

Qiaolei Jiang et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Introduction: In current digital era, adolescents' Internet use has increased exponentially, with the Internet playing a more and more important role in their education and entertainment. However, due to the ongoing cognitive, emotion, and social development processes, youth and adolescents are more vulnerable to Internet addiction. Attention has been paid to the increased use of Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of Internet literacy in prevention and intervention of Internet addiction.

Methods: The present study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the links between Internet literacy, Internet use of different purpose and duration, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents. In this study, N = 2,276 adolescents studying in primary and secondary schools in East China were recruited, and they completed self-reports on sociodemographic characteristics, Internet literacy scale, Internet use, and Internet addiction scale.

Results: The results showed a significant relationship between Internet use and Internet addiction. To be specific, the duration of Internet use significantly and positively affected Internet addiction. With different dimensions of Internet literacy required, entertainment-oriented Internet use had positive impact on Internet addiction, while education-oriented Internet use exerted negative effects on Internet addiction. As for Internet literacy, knowledge and skills for Internet (positively) and Internet self-management (negatively) significantly influenced the likelihood of Internet addiction.

Discussion: The findings suggest that Internet overuse increases the risk of Internet addiction in youth and adolescents, while entertainment-oriented rather than education-oriented Internet use is addictive. The role of Internet literacy is complicated, with critical Internet literacy preventing the development of Internet addiction among youth and adolescents, while functional Internet literacy increasing the risk.

Keywords: China; Internet addiction; Internet literacy; Internet use; youth and adolescents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of the links between Internet literacy, Internet use and Internet addiction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Path analysis of the structural model of the inter-relationships between Internet literacy, Internet use, and Internet addiction. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, N=2276. The solid line represents the path is significant, while the dotted line represents the path is not significant. Model fit statistics: χ2/df=6.916, GFI=0.929, NFI=0.929, IFI=0.939, TLI=0.923, CFI=0.939, RMSEA=0.051.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. International Telecommunication Union . Statistics (2022). Available at: (Accessed April 13, 2023)https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx.
    1. CNNIC . The 51th statistical report on China’s Internet development (2023). Available at: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-09/01/content_5707695.htm (Accessed April 15, 2023).
    1. CYLC, CNNIC . The 2021 annual research report on Internet use behaviors of Chinese minors (2022). Available at: http://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2022-11/30/content_Q4V0qztjZm.html (Accessed April 16, 2023).
    1. Jiang Q, Huang X, Tao R. Examining factors influencing internet addiction and adolescent risk behaviors among excessive internet users. Health Commun. (2018) 33:1434–44. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1358241, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheng C, Li AY. Internet addiction prevalence and quality of (real) life: a meta-analysis of 31 nations across seven world regions. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. (2014) 17:755–60. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0317, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed