PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE AMONG ADOLESCENTS AND THE VIEW OF CONTEXT: A PLS-STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL

The idea of Internet use as a way to face psychosocial malaise is growing in the scientific literature about Problematic Internet Use (PIU). The present study, assuming the Semiotic Cultural Psycho-social Theory (SCPT) (Salvatore, 2018) as theoretical framework, postulates and emphasizes that the context in which the subject is embedded provide the symbolic resources, which ground the way adolescents perceive, experience, and therefore deal with the material and social world, including the likelihood of using the Internet as a way to facing life problems and difficulties. SCTP adopts the term “Symbolic Universes” (SU) to denote affect-laden assumptions concerning the world which may (or not) promote adaptive responses. Specifically, the present study aimed to test a mediation model in which each Symbolic Universes (i.e. independent variable) is associated with the psychosocial malaise in terms of social anxiety, loneliness, and negative emotions (i.e. mediator variable), which in turn has effects on PIU (i.e. dependent variable). Measures of PIU (GPIUS), symbolic universes (VOC), negative affect (PANAS), social anxiety (IAS), loneliness (ILs) among a total of 764 Southern Italy youths aged from 13 to 19 (mean age =15.05 ± 1.152). A Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was firstly run to detect SU; a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was then performed on R for testing the hypothesized mediation model. The results demonstrated that Symbolic Universes characterized by anomie and unreliability of the social context are associated with adolescents’ PIU though the mediation of social anxiety, loneliness, and negative emotions. Overall, findings suggest that within an anomic and unreliable scenario, PIU might acquire the meaning of a way to face life in an environment that seems meaningless, uncertain, and detrimental. On the plane of intervention, this points to the need for programs that address social and cultural influences in youths’ Internet use.