College of Economics and Management, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, Liaoning, China.
J Affect Disord. 2022 Jul 15;309:52-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.04.115. Epub 2022 Apr 22.
The number of internet users has increased substantially in the last decade and these increasing rates of internet use also apply to children. Children usually have poorer self-control and poorer cognition than college-age populations or adults, the impact of Internet addiction on the health of this group has important implications not only for their individual economic and social outcomes but also the future human capital development in China.
We use data from the 2016 and 2018 China Family Panel Survey, a survey that collected data from a large and nationally representative sample of the Chinese population, to construct a sample of children from 25 provinces, and then use DID and PSM-DID methods to investigate whether Internet addiction (increased screen time in this article) impacts the physical and mental health of children (ages 10-15) in China.
Internet addiction has a significant negative impact on child physical and mental health. The mediating effect model shows that Internet addiction impairs child physical and mental health by reducing their sleep and exercise time. The heterogeneity analysis shows that, Internet addiction has a stronger negative effect on urban children than rural children. Additionally, Internet addiction has a significant correlation with the mental health of left-behind children (LBC), but not children living with both parents (CLP).
Our research has several weaknesses. First, this article uses time spent online to measure Internet addiction and this measurement method is not perfect. Also, given that the sample is made up of only Chinese children, conclusions about generalizability remain tentative. Future studies should be conducted in other countries.
This study systematically studied the effects of Internet addiction on the physical and mental health of Chinese children. This study can help government leaders make targeted programs to prevent children from Internet addiction in the future, especially to reduce internet dependence among students.
在过去十年中，互联网用户数量大幅增加，儿童的互联网使用比例也在不断上升。与大学生或成年人相比，儿童的自我控制能力和认知能力通常较差，因此，网络成瘾对这一群体健康的影响不仅对他们个人的经济和社会成果，而且对中国未来人力资本的发展都有着重要的影响。
我们使用了 2016 年和 2018 年中国家庭追踪调查的数据，该调查从中国庞大的、具有全国代表性的人群样本中收集数据，构建了一个来自 25 个省份的儿童样本，然后使用 DID 和 PSM-DID 方法来研究网络成瘾（本文中增加的屏幕时间）是否会影响中国 10-15 岁儿童的身心健康。
网络成瘾对儿童的身心健康有显著的负面影响。中介效应模型表明，网络成瘾通过减少儿童的睡眠时间和运动时间来损害他们的身心健康。异质性分析表明，网络成瘾对城市儿童的负面影响大于农村儿童。此外，网络成瘾与留守儿童（LBC）的心理健康有显著相关性，但与父母双全的儿童（CLP）没有显著相关性。
我们的研究存在一些局限性。首先，本文使用上网时间来衡量网络成瘾，这种衡量方法并不完善。其次，由于样本仅由中国儿童组成，因此关于普遍性的结论仍需谨慎。未来的研究应该在其他国家进行。
本研究系统地研究了网络成瘾对中国儿童身心健康的影响。这项研究可以帮助政府领导人在未来制定有针对性的预防儿童网络成瘾的计划，特别是要减少学生对互联网的依赖。
