Attachment to parents and problematic use of internet in young: The moderating effect of emotional regulation

Abstract

According to the attachment theory, individuals manifest an intrinsic need to establish affective bonds with the primary caring figures. Secure attachment to parents and management of emotional regulation may be a protective factor against the problematic use of the Internet. The main objective of this study was to analyze the effect of parents´ involvement in the development of adolescents and young adults' problematic use of the internet and test the moderator role of emotional regulation in this association. This is an empirical, cross-sectional study with a random sample. The sample comprised 936 students between 14 and 20 years old, male and female sex. The Father and Mother Attachment Questionnaire (QVPM, Matos & Costa, 2001), the Emotional Regulation Difficulties Scale (DERS Gratz & Roemer, 2004; adapted by Coutinho et al., 2010) and the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS-2, Caplan, 2010; adapted by Pontes et al., 2016) were used as evaluation instruments and collected in person. Thus, it is understood that the frequency of excessive use of the internet, specifically social networks, as well as the lack of parental supervision in the use of the internet by their children, may be associated with Problematic Internet Use behaviors in adolescents and young adults.