Comorbidity of Internet addiction and posttraumatic stress disorder among Chinese children and adolescents

• Main Authors: Shi, Wei, Wang, Siyuan, Garabiles, Melissa R., Jia, Peng, Yuan, Guangzhe Frank, Zhao, Li
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: Internet addiction—China; Post-traumatic stress disorder—China; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/12598
• Institution: De La Salle University

Background: Exposure to COVID-19 is linked with a set of common mental disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research has demonstrated that PTSD is linked with addiction-related symptoms. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the linkage between PTSD symptoms and Internet addiction (IA) symptoms that have included a large sample of children and adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the comorbidity of IA and PTSD among a large sample of Chinese students exposed to COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns by conducting a network analysis. Method: The data used in this study was extracted from six-month follow-up data from a longitudinal study that included 7958 Chinese adolescents. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess IA and PTSD symptoms. Network analysis was conducted on 31 items: 19 items from the IA community and 12 from the PTSD community. Results: This study found that symptoms from the same community cluster were more closely related. Four key bridge symptoms were identified: sleep problems, concentration difficulties, irritability, and withdrawal distress. In the PTSD-only network, central symptoms were avoiding reminders, easy reminding, avoiding thoughts, and startled. Conclusions: The estimated network structure of PTSD and IA symptoms highlighted key bridge symptoms that are more influential than others on comorbidity maintenance. These symptoms could be targeted in clinical practice to better alleviate the suffering of children and adolescents. Interventions could focus on vital symptoms including alleviating sleep problems, concentration difficulties, irritability, and withdrawal distress to decrease the comorbidity of IA and PTSD.