SELF-REGULATION DEVELOPMENT AND THE INTERNET ADDICTION: AN EFFORT TO FIND THE CONNECTION

Assoc. Prof. Ekaterina SEDOVA, Assoc. Prof. Tatiana GORYACHEVA

Self-regulation development is considered to be a complicated multi-level process occurring under the influence of various factors. Multiple studies are trying to explain the problematic Internet use from the point of view of self-regulation deficits, but they consider the situation here and now. The current study represents a part of a fifteen-year longitudinal research. It is aimed at establishing the connection between the self-regulation level in the age of 7-8 and 11-12 years and the characteristics of Internet pathological use in the age of 20-21 years. Self-regulation is considered from the point of view of three-level model introduced by Nikolaeva. At first, we compare the results of the neuropsychological tests with the level of learning motivation and academic results, in the age of 20-21 years the Meaning of the Life Orientations Test (MLOT), the Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire (SRPQ) and the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) have been used. Statistically significant differences in the CIAS indexes have been found out among the groups with different self-regulation levels. We have confirmed the connections between the self-regulation levels on each stage of the research but we cannot yet establish statistically significant connections between the results of the third stage with the results of the previous ones. However, we have groped for some tendencies to be confirmed in future studies. We presume that the three-level model of self-regulation could be a methodological basis for designing programs of psychological interventions for dealing with pathological use of the Internet.

Keywords: self-regulation, development, Internet pathological use, Internet addiction

DOI:
Publication date: 31.12.2022

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