Within-Person Reciprocal Relations among Academic Stress, Self-Esteem, and Problematic Internet Use in Chinese Adolescents.

Although prior research has documented associations between academic stress and problematic internet use, it remains unclear whether these relations reflect stable between-person differences or dynamic within-person resource depletion processes. To address this, the present study utilized three waves of longitudinal data collected from 1709 adolescents (Mage = 15.19, SD = 0.51; 50.09% female). A random intercept cross-lagged panel model was employed to disentangle stable between-person differences from within-person processes. Results indicated that at the within-person level, academic stress and problematic internet use were reciprocally and positively associated over time. Simultaneously, academic stress and self-esteem showed a reciprocal negative association. However, self-esteem did not significantly mediate the relationship between academic stress and problematic internet use at the within-person level. These longitudinal associations were invariant across sex. These findings suggest that problematic internet use is not merely predicted by academic stress but is also a significant predictor of subsequent elevations in stress.