College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar.
World Innovation Summit for Health, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar.
BMC Psychol. 2024 Apr 3;12(1):184. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01659-z.
Family and school environment play a crucial role across the different developmental stages of adolescence. This paper investigates the potential mediating role of family and school environments in the relationship between the three psychosocial predictors of depression, anxiety, stress, and Internet addiction (IA). Specifically, it focuses on the two stages of early and middle adolescence.
The study involved a survey of 407 adolescents from Qatar, comprising 250 early adolescents and 157 middle adolescents. Inclusion criteria for the study included adolescents between the ages of 10 to 17 years old, residents of Qatar and studying in a Qatar-based school. To assess the constructs of the three psychosocial predictors, IA, family environment, the study utilized the Depression, Stress, and Anxiety Scale (DASS), the Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ), and the Brief Family Relationship Scale, respectively. School environment was measured using questions from the "Health Behavior in School-aged Children: WHO Collaborative Cross-National survey/study (HBSC) 2013-2014. The study applied standard mediation analysis between the DASS components and IA with family and school environment as the mediators.
Results from the mediation analysis reveal insights into the relationships between psychosocial predictors and IA. The findings indicate that family and school environments partially mediated the relationship with regards to depression, stress, and anxiety in early adolescents. In middle adolescents, family environment partially mediated the relationship with depression and stress and fully mediating the relationship with anxiety. Meanwhile, school environment only exhibited partial mediation in the relationship with anxiety in middle adolescence.
These results highlight the crucial role parents and schools play in addressing problematic technology usage that develops as a response to depression, anxiety, and stress among adolescents. Moreover, the study reveals nuances in the mediating role of family and school environment in early and middle adolescence. This highlights the evolving nature of these influences across the different stages of development. Notably, this study contributes to the literature by moving beyond the conventional focus on the so-called WEIRD population, and offering valuable insights from a region that is underrepresented in current research.
家庭和学校环境在青少年的不同发展阶段都起着至关重要的作用。本文研究了家庭和学校环境在抑郁、焦虑、压力和网络成瘾（IA）这三个心理社会预测因素与抑郁、焦虑、压力和网络成瘾（IA）之间的关系中的潜在中介作用。具体来说，它关注于青少年早期和中期的两个阶段。
该研究调查了来自卡塔尔的 407 名青少年，其中包括 250 名青少年早期和 157 名青少年中期。研究的纳入标准包括年龄在 10 至 17 岁之间、居住在卡塔尔并在卡塔尔学校就读的青少年。为了评估三个心理社会预测因素、IA、家庭环境的结构，研究分别使用了抑郁、压力和焦虑量表（DASS）、网络成瘾诊断问卷（IADQ）和简要家庭关系量表。学校环境使用 2013-2014 年“儿童健康行为：世界卫生组织合作跨国调查/研究（HBSC）”的问题进行测量。该研究应用标准中介分析，将 DASS 成分与 IA 作为家庭和学校环境的中介进行分析。
中介分析的结果揭示了心理社会预测因素与 IA 之间关系的见解。研究结果表明，家庭和学校环境部分中介了青少年早期抑郁、压力和焦虑与 IA 的关系。在青少年中期，家庭环境部分中介了抑郁和压力与 IA 的关系，完全中介了焦虑与 IA 的关系。而学校环境仅在青少年中期的焦虑与 IA 关系中表现出部分中介作用。
这些结果强调了父母和学校在解决青少年抑郁、焦虑和压力发展为问题性技术使用方面的重要作用。此外，研究揭示了家庭和学校环境在青少年早期和中期的中介作用的细微差别。这突出了这些影响在不同发展阶段的演变性质。值得注意的是，这项研究通过超越对所谓的 WEIRD 人群的传统关注，以及从当前研究中代表性不足的地区提供有价值的见解，为文献做出了贡献。
