ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Study on the Influence Mechanism of Internet Risks on the Development Risks of Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Digital Dependence and the Moderating Role of Digital Skills
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, China
- 2Wuhan Municipal Institute of Public Administration, Wuhan, China
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Background: For the adolescent group who have grown up alongside the Internet, participating in digital life has become an important part of their daily practices. However, persistent negative online content exposure, interaction experiences and participation in online risky behaviors significant exacerbate adolescents' developmental risks. This study examined how online content risks, interaction risks, and behavioral risks relate to adolescents' developmental risks, and whether digital dependence mediates these effects and digital skills moderate them. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2025 among students from five schools in Y and H provinces, China, including one primary school, one junior high school, one senior high school, one junior college, and one university. 899 students (51.4% girls), aged 10–19 (Mage = 14.66, standard deviation [SD] = 2.78), participated. Results: Online content risks, interaction risks, and behavioral risks exert significant positive effects on the digital developmental risks of Chinese adolescents. Furthermore, digital dependence significantly mediated the effects of the three online risks on adolescents' developmental risks related to alienation from reality. Finally, enhanced digital skills mitigated the positive effect of behavioral risks on digital developmental risks. In addition, the control variables of age, educational level, health status, and economic level were all significant predictors of digital developmental risks. Conclusions: The results suggest that adolescents' developmental risks are closely linked to their online experiences, digital dependence, and digital skills. Targeted efforts to reduce harmful online exposure, curb excessive Internet reliance, and strengthen digital competencies may effectively mitigate risks of alienation from reality. Additionally, targeted monitoring and intervention efforts should prioritize those who are older adolescents, have lower educational attainment, are in poorer physical health, or come from economically disadvantaged households.
Keywords: online content risks1, online interaction risks2, online behavioral risks3, developmentrisks4, digital dependence5, digital skills6
Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 07 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lv, Hong and Huang. 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: Yue Hong, hongyue1997@163.com
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