A Follow-up Study On Children's Depression And Internet Game Addiction

Depression has always been a hot issue in the field of psychological research.In addition to a large number of studies on adolescents' depression,the study on children's depression has gradually increased in recent years.With the popularity of the Internet,primary and secondary school students' Internet game disorder behavior is more and more frequent,which has also attracted the attention of all walks of life.The research on the Internet game disorder of primary and secondary school students is also increasing year by year.Previous studies have shown that depression and Internet game disorder are closely related,but the causal and effect of the relationship between them has been inconclusive.The study of the causal relationship between the two has great significance to understand the causes of children's depression and Internet game disorder,as well as the prevention and intervention of children's depression and Internet game disorder in the future.Therefore,this study intends to use the longitudinal study and the cross-lagged model to further investigate the causal relationship between children's depression and Internet game disorder.In this study,1197 students were selected from 2 to 5 grade in a primary school in Tianjin by cluster sampling method.We conducted two data collections at an interval of 6 moths.Children's depression and internet game disorder are measured by “Children's Depression Inventory(CDI)” and “Internet Gaming Disorder Scale(IGDS)”.The study uses the cross-lagged model to examine the cause and effect relationship between children's depression and Internet game disorder.The results show that:(1)boys' Internet game disorder is significantly higher than girls;(2)children's depression and Internet game disorder predict each other positively,but the effect of depression on Internet game disorder is stronger than that of Internet game addiction;(3)boys' depression and Internet game disorder predict each other positively,but the influence of Internet game disorder on depression was stronger than that of depression on Internet game disorder;(4)the depression of female students predicted Internet game disorder positively,but Internet game disorder did not predict their depression.This study enriches the longitudinal study of children's depression and Internet game disorder,reveals the importance of gender in the relationship between them,and provides theoretical and empirical support for mental health education in primary and secondary schools.