An emotional and cognitive model of problematic Internet use among college students: The full mediating role of cognitive factors

Abstract Numerous researches have shown that the excessive Internet use is significantly associated with a variety of psychological problems among young people. However, limited research has focused on the psychological mechanism underlying Problematic Internet Use (PIU). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between several emotional and cognitive factors in predicting PIU in a sole model. In this model, emotion dysregulation was the independent variable, four cognitive variables (i.e. distress intolerance, experiential avoidance, desire thinking, and intolerance of uncertainty) were the mediators, and PIU was the dependent variable. Participants were 300 college students from four universities in Tehran (60% females; Mean age = 20.27). Results of the Structural Equation Modeling analysis revealed a full mediation role of distress intolerance, experiential avoidance, and desire thinking in the relationship between emotion dysregulation and PIU (R2 = 61%). Based on these findings a special attention to cognitive factors is suggested, in the treatment of PIU.