In plain language
Do young people turn to compulsive internet use because they struggle to manage their emotions, or does compulsive internet use itself damage the ability to manage emotions? This study is the first to untangle those two possibilities over time. Researchers followed 2,809 adolescents across 17 Australian schools, surveying them every year from Grade 8 (average age 13.7) to Grade 11 on compulsive internet use — the inability to regulate one's internet use, with guilt about the lack of control — and six distinct facets of emotion regulation difficulty.
Using structural equation modeling of the year-to-year data, the study found support for the "antecedent" model: compulsive internet use came first, predicting later increases in specific emotion regulation problems — particularly difficulty pursuing goals when distressed and difficulty being clear about what one is feeling. There was no evidence for the reverse ("consequence") pathway: emotion regulation difficulties did not predict later increases in compulsive internet use. Individual yearly effects were small, but they were stable across all four years, so a teen who remained high in compulsive use from Grade 8 to Grade 10 would be expected to lose about 0.6 of a standard deviation in emotional clarity and distress tolerance for goals by Grade 11.
The findings matter for intervention design. Because emotion dysregulation did not appear to drive compulsive internet use, teaching adolescents general emotion regulation skills may not be an effective way to reduce it; more direct approaches to limiting internet use may work better. Meanwhile, young people already caught in compulsive use may need targeted support with labeling their emotions and persisting at valued goals in the presence of distress.
Key findings
- Compulsive internet use preceded the development of specific emotion regulation difficulties — notably difficulty pursuing goals in the presence of distress and difficulty being clear about one's emotions (the "antecedent" model).
- No evidence was found that emotion regulation difficulties preceded increases in compulsive internet use (the "consequence" model was not supported).
- Compulsive internet use did not predict other facets of emotion dysregulation, such as emotional non-acceptance, lack of awareness, impulsiveness, or difficulty identifying regulation strategies — its effects were selective.
- Yearly effects were small (around .10) but stable across all four years, implying persistently high compulsive use from Grade 8 to 10 could cost about 0.6 SD in emotional clarity and goal persistence by Grade 11.
- The pattern suggests compulsive internet use affects effortful, cognitively complex forms of emotion regulation more than spontaneous, affect-driven ones like impulse control.
- Implication for practice: teaching general emotion regulation skills may be less effective at reducing compulsive internet use than directly limiting internet use.
How to cite
APA
Donald, J. N., Ciarrochi, J., & Sahdra, B. K. (2022). The consequences of compulsion: A 4-year longitudinal study of compulsive internet use and emotion regulation difficulties. Emotion, 22(4), 678–689. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000769
BibTeX
@article{donald2022consequences,
author = {Donald, James N. and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Sahdra, Baljinder K.},
title = {The Consequences of Compulsion: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of Compulsive Internet Use and Emotion Regulation Difficulties},
journal = {Emotion},
year = {2022},
volume = {22},
number = {4},
pages = {678--689},
doi = {10.1037/emo0000769}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.