Abstract
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a prevalent mental health issue and has been reliably associated with problematic internet use (PIU), an escalating concern. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of two theoretically derived internet affordances—seeking social connections online and safety-seeking behaviors online—in this relationship, and to compare their relative impact. Using a sample of 537 adult volunteers and self-report measures, we tested a structural equation model to probe their contributions. Results indicate that individuals with more SAD symptoms tended to use the internet more for both internet affordances, which in turn increased the likelihood of PIU. The relative contribution of safety behaviors in the relationship between SAD and PIU was five times stronger than seeking social connections online. We discuss our results in the context of an affordance-based approach to research internet behaviors and delve into potential clinical implications.
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The data for this manuscript is available in its anonymized form at the following link: https://osf.io/9xwu3/?view_only=5ebb24e3317d4722845a49bb814154ad.
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Funding
This work was funded by ANID Fondecyt de Iniciación 2020, N 11201010.
Author contributionsConceptualization: R.H., J.A.G., S.Q. and C.H.; Data curation: R.H. and C.H.; Formal analysis: R.H. and C.H.; Funding acquisition: C.H.; Investigation: R.H., J.A.G. and S.Q.; Methodology: C.H.; Project administration: S.Q. and C.H.; Resources: C.H.; Software: C.H.; Supervision: C.H.; Validation: R.H. and C.H.; Writing – original draft: R.H., J.A.G., S.Q., M.F., M.C., and C.H.; Writing - review & editing: R.H., J.A.G., S.Q., M.F., M.C., and C.H.
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The study protocol was approved by Adolfo Ibañez University’s Ethics Committee, and all procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.
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Hansen, R., Garcés, J.A., Quevedo, S. et al. “Safe within reach of my phone”: explaining the relationship between social anxiety and problematic internet use through social connections and avoidant safety-seeking behaviors. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05810-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05810-2