Social Media Addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder in Adolescents: Testing the Spectrum and Connectivity Hypotheses Using a Network Approach

The internet plays a central role in today's society. Despite the many benefits offered by the internet, there are public concerns about excessive internet usage resulting in social media addiction and internet gaming disorder. The aim of the present study is to get a better understanding of the comorbidity of these disorders and their relationship with mental health using a network approach. Italian adolescents (N = 2,646) completed a cross-sectional questionnaire on social media addiction symptoms, internet gaming disorder symptoms, and mental health. Network analysis revealed that social media addiction and internet gaming disorder are two separable but related addictions (confirming the spectrum hypothesis). Mood modification symptoms acted as bridging symptoms constituting a key mechanism accounting for the comorbidity between social media addiction and internet gaming disorder. Finally, the internet addiction symptoms network exhibited stronger connectivity in adolescents suffering from mental health problems (confirming the connectivity hypothesis). These results highlight the potential of interventions targeting affective processes to fight internet addictions.