The Effect And Mechanism Of Stress On Internet Addition

The innovation and development of science and technology often has wide, profound and long-lasting impact on human life. Among those inventions, Internet, undoubtedly, is the most far-reaching one. On the one hand, the development of Internet enriches people’s lives; on the other hand, it also brings negative effects. Among these negative effects, Internet addiction has received extensive attention. Internet addiction is detrimental to individual’s mental health and social functioning. Therefore, it is of theoretical and practical significance to study the influencing factors and mechanism of Internet addiction.Among those variables that affecting Internet addiction, stress has been paid more and more attention. Besides examining the relationship between Internet addiction and stress, some studies have begun to explore the mechanism that how stress affects Internet addiction. Although much work has been done, research in this area still lacks integrating framework and systematic study. Thus, based on previous theoretical and empirical research, this paper is to construct an integrating model of how stress affects Internet addiction and validate this model by questionnaire and experiment.On the basis of general adaptation syndrome, limited self-control theory and conservation of resource theory, this study constructed a resource consumption model of stress affecting Internet addiction by combining relevant empirical data. The model assumes that stress consumes individual’s psychological resources, eventually leading to Internet addiction. Subsequently, I examined the model by questionnaire and eye movement. The main conclusions are as follows:1. Pressure affects Internet addiction via the mediating effect of resource. This effect applies to different groups (college students, vocational students), stress at different times (recent stress, childhood abuse) and a variety of psychological resources (self-esteem, self-control, gratitude, school belonging and social support).2. College students’campus stress affects Internet addiction via motivation as mediating effect. However, this mediating effect is not stable. Campus stress influences Internet addiction through actual self-esteem, virtual self-esteem and escape motivation as multiple mediating effects. Campus stress also influences Internet addiction through self-control, social motivation as multiple mediating effects. Actual self-esteem decreases the risk of Internet addiction. While virtual self-esteem increases the risk of Internet addiction..3. In the process of stress affecting resource and resource affecting Internet addiction among college students, the regulating effect of positive emotions do not exist. 4. Vocational students’ negative emotions are significantly positively correlated with stress and Internet addiction. There is a significant negative correlation between vocational students’ negative emotions and resource. stress has an impact on Internet addiction through multiple mediating effects of resource and negative emotions.