Understanding adolescents’ problematic Internet use from a social/cognitive and addiction research framework Jeong Jin Yu a,⇑ , Hyeonyee Kim b , Ian Hay a a University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia b Yonsei Fam’s Clinical Brain Training Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea article info Article history: Keywords: Parenting behavior Adolescents Emotion regulation Addiction Problematic Internet use abstract As Internet usage has become more prevalent among youth, so too has problematic Internet use. Despite the critical role of emotion regulation in the development of adolescents’ behaviors and the role of par- enting interactions on their children’s behaviors, little research has examined these links with reference to problematic and addictive Internet use for adolescents. The main goal of this study was to examine these links, based on a sample of 525 high school students (368 males; M = 15.33 years, SD = 0.47) from a predominantly middle and lower-middle socioeconomic community in Seoul, Korea. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that students’ difficulties in emotion regulation was a mediating variable between students’ perceptions of their parents’ parenting behaviors and the students’ Internet use. The findings substantiate the importance of conceptualizing addiction from a social/cognitive theo- retical framework and the notion that adolescence is the onset period for many addictive behaviors and so more proactive attention needs to be given to reducing these early negative behaviors. Based on these results, interventions designed to enhance adolescents’ emotion regulatory abilities have the likelihood to mitigate problematic and even addictive Internet use among youth. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction While there is significant literature on the value of the Internet as a relevant method to enhance adolescences’ opportunities to learning and engage with others, there is also a growing concern about the long term adverse effects of excessive and addictive Internet use by youth (e.g., Park, Kim, & Cho, 2009). In particular, excessive social networking and game playing are associated with less time spent on prosocial activities and academic tasks, such that high Internet users are associated with poorer school perfor- mance, less physical activity, greater levels of de-sensitivity to vio- lence and aggressive behavior, and higher levels of disengagement from society (Cheung & Wong, 2011; Choi et al., 2009; Huang & Leung, 2009; Kim et al., 2006; Leander, Christianson, & Granhag, 2008; Lin & Tsai, 2002;Malesky, 2007; Mesch, 2009; Young, 1998a, 1998b). Fortunately, not all youth who use the Internet as a free time activity in the home, even for long periods of their free time, become absorbed by the Internet to the detriment of other social, physical, emotional, and intellectual activities (Park et al., 2009). Why some adolescents seem to be able to regulate and moderate their Internet use is at the core of this research. There is also significant research literature on the role of parents in either moderating or facilitating their child’s behaviors and actions (Mor- ris, Cui, & Steinberg, 2012), but to date, little is known about the direct and indirect influences of parenting on adolescents’ Internet use. Therefore, one of the aims of the current study is to examine how parenting is associated either directly or indirectly with prob- lematic Internet usage among youth. 1.1. Problematic Internet use Problematic Internet use can be defined as excessive preoccupa- tion with Internet use that results in psychosocial maladjustment, academic difficulties, and physical health problems for the individ- uals involved (Beard & Wolf, 2001; Shapira et al., 2003). The notion that problematic Internet use could be linked to research on addic- tive behaviors, in part, comes from a school of research that main- tains that addiction is a developmental disorder that typically has its origins in adolescence (Chung, 2013). The argument is that developmental changes during adolescence involving pubertal maturation, continuing brain development, adolescents’ sensitivity to stimulation and changing parent relationships, and an expand- ing social peer environment, all contribute to a peak period of risk for the early onset of addictive behaviors (Castellanos-Ryan & Con- rod, 2013; Chung, 2013). Researchers investigating problematic Internet use by adoles- cents have traditionally been more focused on documenting and 0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.06.045 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 66, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Tel.: +61 03 6226 2560. E-mail address: JJ.YU@utas.edu.au (J.J. Yu). Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 2682–2689 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh