The Relationship Between College Students' Adult Attachment And Internet Addiction Behavior

Objectives.Internet addiction is one of problematic behaviors in adolescents and college students,attracting extensive attentions from psychological and clinical researchers.This study aimed to explore the relationships among Internet addiction,adult attachment and emotional regulation,and the relationship between Internet addiction,adult attachment and emotion recognition in college students.Methods.A cross ?sectional study was conducted in a sample of 377 college students.Measures were the Internet Addiction Test(IAT),the Internet Addiction Test(IAT),the Adult Attachment Scale(AAS),and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(DERS).In the second Study,155 participants conveniently sampled from the first study were invited to take the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.Correlation analyses were used to explore the relationship between Internet addiction behavior,adult attachment and difficulties of emotion recognition.Results.Correlation analyses of Study 1 data showed that the score of Internet addiction was positively correlated with scores of attachment avoidance?attachment anxiety and Difficulties in emotional regulation.The relationship between attachment avoidance and Internet addiction was mediated by Difficulties in emotional regulation.The relationship between attachment anxiety and Internet addiction was partially mediated by Difficulties in emotional regulation.Correlation analyses of Study 2showed that Internet addiction score was positively correlated with the score of positive-emotion recognition.Conclusion.Our study provides evidences that adult attachment patterns and emotion regulation abilities may have influence Internet addiction behaviors in college students.