The Longitudinal Impact of Parenting Styles on Pathological Internet Use Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Rumination and the Moderating Role of Environmental Sensitivity

TL;DR

This study explores how parenting styles affect college students' excessive internet use over time, with rumination and environmental sensitivity playing key roles.

Contribution

The study identifies rumination as a mediator and environmental sensitivity as a moderator in the relationship between parenting styles and PIU.

Findings

Positive parenting is linked to lower PIU, while negative parenting is linked to higher PIU.

Rumination partially explains the effect of parenting styles on PIU.

Environmental sensitivity strengthens the indirect effect of parenting styles on PIU through rumination.

Abstract

Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of pathological internet use (PIU), this study examined the longitudinal impact of parenting styles on college students’ PIU and the roles played by rumination and environmental sensitivity. A total of 652 freshmen were tracked three times over one year by means of Parenting Style Questionnaire, the Pathological Internet Use Scale, the Rumination Thinking Scale and the High Sensitivity Personality Questionnaire. T1 positive parenting significantly negatively predicted T3 PIU, while T1 negative parenting significantly positively predicted T3 PIU; T2 rumination partially mediated the longitudinal relationship between T1 parenting styles and T3 PIU; environmental sensitivity plays a moderating role in both the direct pathway and the first half pathway of the mediating effect of parental rearing styles on pathological Internet use through rumination thinking, and the results of the moderating effect support the differential susceptibility model. We found that the indirect effect of parenting styles on PIU among college students through rumination was moderated by environmental sensitivity. Specifically, environmental sensitivity strengthened the pathway from parenting styles and rumination to PIU.