Problematic internet use as a moderator between personality dimensions and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence

Digital technology use plays an essential role in adolescents’ psychological adjustment, impacting their mental health and well-being. In this scenario, Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is a risky condition for developing behavioral addiction in adolescence. Most of the research on PIU in adolescence focus on dimensions that may amplify or buffer it, finding significant associations between PIU and interpersonal problems with peers, maladaptive personality traits, low self-esteem, emotion dysregulation, and increasing psychological difficulties. It has been suggested that PIU might represent a maladaptive coping strategy to tackle problematic psychosocial functioning. In this line, the current cross-sectional study focused on PIU’s role in the association between personality dimensions and internalizing/externalizing problems. Two-hundred thirty-one middle and late adolescents (age range 15–19 years; 62% Female) attending public junior high schools in Italy completed the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Adolescent Personality Structure Questionnaire (APS-Q), and the Youth Self Report (YSR). Moderation analyses were used to test the hypothesis that higher PIU amplifies the relationship between maladaptive personality dimensions and psychological symptoms. Results indicated that only high PIU influenced the relationship between difficulties in building significant relationships with peers and internalizing problems. Conversely, PIU buffered the relationship between difficulties in adolescents’ sense of self (identity) and internalizing problems and the association between aggression regulation and internalizing problems, supporting the role of PIU as a maladaptive coping strategy. These findings encourage accurately evaluating PIU as a risk factor in adolescence: (1) considering how high PIU’s presence should impact the relationship between adolescent personality and the quality of their relationships with peers; (2) acknowledging the role of PIU as a regulation strategy for identity difficulties and aggression dysregulation.