Stress as a mediator between risk and protective factors and online risky behaviors in adolescents

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the mediating role of stress in associations between online risky behaviors and real-life risky behaviors and information security awareness as risk factors, and life satisfaction as a protective factor. Participants were university students (N = 883, 40.5% male, and 59.5% female) with an average age of M = 21.93 years (SD = 4.29). They filled out the Users' Information Security Awareness Questionnaire, Youth self-reported delinquency and risk behaviors questionnaire, Life satisfaction scale and Perceived Stress Scale. Mediation analysis revealed a significant mediating role of stress in associations between online risky behaviors and real-life risky behaviors and life satisfaction. For the association between real-life risky behaviors and online risky behaviors stress had only a partially mediating role. However, stress had a fully mediating role in the association between life satisfaction and online risky behaviors. Overall results indicate that stress can be seen as underlying mechanism in association's between real-life and online risky behaviors in adolescents. Under stressed conditions, adolescents choose to focus on negative outcomes more frequently because they refocus their cognitive resources on emotion regulation and leave inhibitory processes necessary to prevent risky behaviors uncontrolled.