IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p15582-d982405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internet Addiction among Young Adult University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Peritraumatic Distress, Attachment, and Alexithymia

Author

Listed:
  • Eleonora Marzilli

    (Department of Dynamic, Clinical & Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy)

  • Luca Cerniglia

    (Faculty of Psychology, International Telematic University Uninettuno, 00185 Rome, Italy)

  • Silvia Cimino

    (Department of Dynamic, Clinical & Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy)

  • Renata Tambelli

    (Department of Dynamic, Clinical & Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The literature focused on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adult university students’ mental health shows a significant increase in psychopathological symptoms and Internet Addiction (IA). The key role played by attachment and alexithymia has also been suggested, but no study has explored the possible dynamic relationship between these variables. We recruited a sample of n = 410 young adult university students online. We assessed the attachment to parents and peers (through IPPA), alexithymia (through TAS-20), peritraumatic distress symptoms due to COVID-19 (through CPDI), and IA (through IAT). The results showed that the relationship between the attachment to mothers and IA was partially mediated by alexithymia and by the serial mediation of alexithymia and peritraumatic distress, whereas the influence of the attachment to fathers on IA was fully mediated by peritraumatic distress. The direct effects of the attachment to peers on alexithymia, peritraumatic distress, and IA were all significant, as were the indirect paths via the simple mediation of both alexithymia and peritraumatic distress and the multiple serial mediation of alexithymia and peritraumatic distress. Our findings suggested that the relationship between attachment, alexithymia, and psychopathological risk is dynamic in predicting IA during the pandemic among young adult university students and that the different attachment figures exert a peculiar contribution to these processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Marzilli & Luca Cerniglia & Silvia Cimino & Renata Tambelli, 2022. "Internet Addiction among Young Adult University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Peritraumatic Distress, Attachment, and Alexithymia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-22, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15582-:d:982405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15582/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15582/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karolina Fila-Witecka & Monika Malecka & Adrianna Senczyszyn & Tomasz Wieczorek & Mieszko Wieckiewicz & Dorota Szczesniak & Patryk Piotrowski & Joanna Rymaszewska, 2022. "Sleepless in Solitude—Insomnia Symptoms Severity and Psychopathological Symptoms among University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Daniel Luccas Arenas & Anna Carolina Viduani & Ana Margareth Siqueira Bassols & Simone Hauck, 2021. "Peer support intervention as a tool to address college students’ mental health amidst the COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(3), pages 301-302, May.
    3. Umberto Volpe & Laura Orsolini & Virginio Salvi & Umberto Albert & Claudia Carmassi & Giuseppe Carrà & Francesca Cirulli & Bernardo Dell’Osso & Mario Luciano & Giulia Menculini & Maria Giulia Nanni & , 2022. "COVID-19-Related Social Isolation Predispose to Problematic Internet and Online Video Gaming Use in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Carmen Trumello & Laura Vismara & Cristina Sechi & Piera Ricciardi & Valentina Marino & Alessandra Babore, 2021. "Internet Addiction: The Role of Parental Care and Mental Health in Adolescence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Renata Tambelli & Silvia Cimino & Eleonora Marzilli & Giulia Ballarotto & Luca Cerniglia, 2021. "Late Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents and Peers and Psychological Distress Resulting from COVID-19. A Study on the Mediation Role of Alexithymia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-17, October.
    6. María Pilar Jiménez & Jennifer A. Rieker & José Manuel Reales & Soledad Ballesteros, 2021. "COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress as a Function of Age and Gender in a Spanish Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Ovidiu Popa-Velea & Liliana Diaconescu & Alexandra Mihăilescu & Mara Jidveian Popescu & George Macarie, 2017. "Burnout and Its Relationships with Alexithymia, Stress, and Social Support among Romanian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-10, May.
    8. Giulia Ballarotto & Barbara Volpi & Renata Tambelli, 2021. "Adolescent Attachment to Parents and Peers and the Use of Instagram: The Mediation Role of Psychopathological Risk," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-13, April.
    9. Elena Delgado & Cristina Serna & Isabel Martínez & Edie Cruise, 2022. "Parental Attachment and Peer Relationships in Adolescence: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-22, January.
    10. Silvia Guarnieri & Martina Smorti & Franca Tani, 2015. "Attachment Relationships and Life Satisfaction During Emerging Adulthood," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 833-847, April.
    11. Min-Pei Lin, 2020. "Prevalence of Internet Addiction during the COVID-19 Outbreak and Its Risk Factors among Junior High School Students in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-12, November.
    12. Giulia Ballarotto & Eleonora Marzilli & Luca Cerniglia & Silvia Cimino & Renata Tambelli, 2021. "How Does Psychological Distress Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Internet Addiction and Instagram Addiction in Emerging Adults?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-19, October.
    13. Meichun Mohler-Kuo & Shota Dzemaili & Simon Foster & Laura Werlen & Susanne Walitza, 2021. "Stress and Mental Health among Children/Adolescents, Their Parents, and Young Adults during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Switzerland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-17, April.
    14. Eleonora Marzilli & Luca Cerniglia & Giulia Ballarotto & Silvia Cimino, 2020. "Internet Addiction among Young Adult University Students: The Complex Interplay between Family Functioning, Impulsivity, Depression, and Anxiety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-15, November.
    15. D. R. Cox, 1992. "Causality: Some Statistical Aspects," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 155(2), pages 291-301, March.
    16. Wunsch, Guillaume & Mouchart, Michel & Russo, Federica, 2010. "Do we necessarily need longitudinal data to infer causal relations?," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2010016, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    17. Turgut Karakose, 2022. "Assessing the Relationships between Internet Addiction, Depression, COVID-19-Related Fear, Anxiety, and Suspicion among Graduate Students in Educational Administration: A Structural Equation Modeling ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel T. L. Shek & Wenyu Chai & Kaiji Zhou, 2023. "Risk Factors and Protective Factors of Internet Addiction in University Students during the Pandemic: Implications for Prevention and Treatment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(11), pages 1-17, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulia Ballarotto & Eleonora Marzilli & Luca Cerniglia & Silvia Cimino & Renata Tambelli, 2021. "How Does Psychological Distress Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Internet Addiction and Instagram Addiction in Emerging Adults?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Renata Tambelli & Silvia Cimino & Eleonora Marzilli & Giulia Ballarotto & Luca Cerniglia, 2021. "Late Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents and Peers and Psychological Distress Resulting from COVID-19. A Study on the Mediation Role of Alexithymia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Silvia Cimino & Luca Cerniglia & Giulia Ballarotto & Eleonora Marzilli & Esterina Pascale & Claudio D’Addario & Walter Adriani & Angelo Giovanni Icro Maremmani & Renata Tambelli, 2019. "Children’s DAT1 Polymorphism Moderates the Relationship Between Parents’ Psychological Profiles, Children’s DAT Methylation, and Their Emotional/Behavioral Functioning in a Normative Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Silvia Cimino & Luca Cerniglia, 2021. "The Capacity to Be Alone Moderates Psychopathological Symptoms and Social Networks Use in Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-9, October.
    5. Eleonora Marzilli & Luca Cerniglia & Renata Tambelli & Elena Trombini & Leonardo De Pascalis & Alessandra Babore & Carmen Trumello & Silvia Cimino, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Families’ Mental Health: The Role Played by Parenting Stress, Parents’ Past Trauma, and Resilience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Guillaume Wunsch & Federica Russo & Michel Mouchart & Renzo Orsi, 2020. "Time and Causality in the Social Sciences," Working Papers wp1155, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    7. Lenihan, Helena & McGuirk, Helen & Murphy, Kevin R., 2019. "Driving innovation: Public policy and human capital," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    8. Wunsch, Guillaume & Mouchart, Michel & Russo, Federica, 2017. "Causal attribution in block-recursive social sytems. A structural modeling perspective," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2017029, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    9. Catherine Gaumé & Guillaume Wunsch, 2010. "Self-Rated Health in the Baltic Countries, 1994–1999," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 26(4), pages 435-457, November.
    10. Alok Bhargava, 2006. "Modelling the Health of Filipino Children," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 11, pages 153-168, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Marco Riani & Anthony C. Atkinson & Gianluca Morelli & Aldo Corbellini, 2025. "The Use of Modern Robust Regression Analysis with Graphics: An Example from Marketing," Stats, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, January.
    12. Takafumi Nishioka & Hideki Hasunuma & Masumi Okuda & Naoko Taniguchi & Tetsuro Fujino & Hideki Shimomura & Yasuhiko Tanaka & Masayuki Shima & Yasuhiro Takeshima & Japan Environment and Children’s Stud, 2022. "Effects of Screen Viewing Time on Sleep Duration and Bedtime in Children Aged 1 and 3 Years: Japan Environment and Children’s Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    13. Melanie Koeger & Hannah Schillok & Stephan Voss & Michaela Coenen & Christina Merkel & Caroline Jung-Sievers & On behalf of the COSMO Study Team, 2022. "Alcohol Use of German Adults during Different Pandemic Phases: Repeated Cross-Sectional Analyses in the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring Study (COSMO)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-17, May.
    14. Tiberiu Constantin Ionescu & Bogdana Ioana Fetecau & Stefan Zaharia & Elma-Maria Mînecan & Catalina Tudose, 2023. "Sleepless Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Insomnia Symptoms among Professionally Active Romanians during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    15. Steven Spears & Marlon G Boarnet & Douglas Houston, 2017. "Driving reduction after the introduction of light rail transit: Evidence from an experimental-control group evaluation of the Los Angeles Expo Line," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(12), pages 2780-2799, September.
    16. Gaia Sampogna & Maurizio Pompili & Andrea Fiorillo, 2022. "The Short-Term Consequences of COVID-19 on Mental Health: State of the Art from Available Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-5, November.
    17. Małgorzata Szcześniak & Iga Bajkowska & Anna Czaprowska & Aleksandra Sileńska, 2022. "Adolescents’ Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction: Communication with Peers as a Mediator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Guido W. Imbens, 2022. "Causality in Econometrics: Choice vs Chance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(6), pages 2541-2566, November.
    19. Turgut Karakose & Ibrahim Kocabas & Ramazan Yirci & Stamatios Papadakis & Tuncay Yavuz Ozdemir & Murat Demirkol, 2022. "The Development and Evolution of Digital Leadership: A Bibliometric Mapping Approach-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, December.
    20. Tukufu Zuberi, 2000. "Deracializing Social Statistics: Problems in the Quantification of Race," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 568(1), pages 172-185, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15582-:d:982405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.