ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Profiles of Childhood Maltreatment and Peer Victimization: Associations with Pathological Internet Use in Chinese Left-behind Children
Provisionally accepted
- Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
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Introduction: Pathological Internet use is relatively common among adolescents, yet few studies have concurrently examined the influence of family-level and peer-related risk factors. This study aimed to use latent profile analysis to identify patterns of childhood maltreatment and peer victimization and to explore their associations with pathological Internet use. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 1,205 Chinese adolescents (M = 14.6, SD = 1.17; 20.1% left-behind children) completed self-report questionnaires. Participants completed validated instruments, including the Adolescent Pathological Internet Use Scale (APIUS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), and the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS). Result: Latent profile analysis revealed three classes of childhood maltreatment and peer victimization: the low-risk group (80.83%), the severe peer victimization profile (11.86%), the severe childhood maltreatment with elevated peer victimization profile (7.31%). Compared with adolescents in the low-risk and severe peer victimization profiles, boys and left-behind children with migrant mothers were more likely to belong to the severe childhood maltreatment with elevated peer victimization profile. Moreover, adolescents in the severe childhood maltreatment with elevated peer victimization profile reported significantly higher negative outcomes of pathological Internet use than those in the low-risk profile. Conclusion: These findings underscore the value of jointly considering childhood maltreatment and peer victimization when identifying latent risk profiles, highlight the importance of differentiating specific left-behind family arrangements, and demonstrate the utility of examining distinct dimensions of pathological Internet use in capturing vulnerability to adverse outcomes.
Keywords: childhood maltreatment, latent profile analysis, Left-behind Children, pathological internet use, Peer victimization
Received: 13 Dec 2025; Accepted: 30 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Li, DONG, LIU, Zhang, Che and Zhou. 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:
Wen LIU
Jiaqi Zhang
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