Association between morningness-eveningness and the severity of compulsive Internet use: the moderating role of gender and parenting style.

BACKGROUND

Eveningness and Internet addiction are major concerns in adolescence and young adulthood. We investigated the relationship between morningness-eveningness and compulsive Internet use in young adults and explored the moderating effects of perceived parenting styles and family support on such relationships.

METHODS

The participants consisted of 2731 incoming college students (men, 52.4%; mean age, 19.4±3.6years) from a National University in Taiwan. Each participant completed the questionnaires, which included the Morningness-Eveningness Scale (MES), the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale modified for Internet use (YBOCS-IU), the Parental Bonding Instrument for parenting style, the Family Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, and Resolve questionnaire (APGAR) for perceived family support, and the Adult Self-Report Inventory-4 (ASRI-4) for psychopathology. The morning (n=459), intermediate (n=1878), and evening (n=394) groups were operationally defined by the MES t scores.

RESULTS

The results showed that eveningness was associated with greater weekend sleep compensation, increased compulsive Internet use, more anxiety, poorer parenting styles, and less family support; additionally, the most associated variables for increased compulsive Internet use were the tendency of eveningness, male gender, more anxiety symptoms, less maternal affection/care, and a lower level of perceived family support. The negative association between the morning type and compulsive Internet use severity escalated with increased maternal affection/care and decreased with increased perceived family support. The positive association between the evening type and compulsive Internet use severity declined with increased maternal protection. However, the father's parenting style did not influence the relationship between morningness-eveningness and compulsive Internet use severity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings imply that sleep schedule and the parental and family process should be part of specific measures for prevention and intervention of compulsive Internet use.