ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Individual and Social Behaviors
Association between Internet Use and Adolescent Behavioral Development: A Cross-Lagged Regression Study
Provisionally accepted
Desheng Yan1
Lei Qi2*- 1Inner Mongolia Minzu Preschool Education College, Ordos, China
- 2Baotou Teachers' College, Baotou, China
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Promotive behavior refers to actions that facilitate individuals' efforts to surmount obstacles and proactively pursue their goals, thereby fostering adaptive functioning and positive development. In contrast, prohibitive behavior refers to harmful or otherwise maladaptive actions that may hinder individuals' personal growth and developmental outcomes. This study aims to explore the possible causal relationship between Internet use behavior and adolescent behavioral development, including promotive behavior and prohibitive behavior. There were 9132 students' data that were analyzed, and cross-lagged regression analysis was used to study causal relationships between two or more variables that change over time. Data were collected at two time points: T1 (the 2013–2014 academic year) and T2 (the 2014–2015 academic year), with an interval of approximately one year between the two waves. Results indicated a negative correlation between Internet use behavior and promotive behavior at points-in-time T1 and T2, while a positive relationship was observed between Internet use behavior and prohibitive behavior at both time points. Findings suggest that reducing problematic Internet use among adolescents contributes to the development of healthy behaviors, and active and healthy adolescent behaviors can in turn reduce their problematic Internet use.
Keywords: Adolescent behavioral development, Cross-laggedregression, Internet use behavior, Prohibitive behavior, Promotive behavior
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yan and Qi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lei Qi
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