Changes in the comorbidity patterns of negative emotional symptoms and Internet addiction over time among the first-year senior high school students: A one-year longitudinal study.

Background: The comorbidity of psychiatric disorders and Internet addiction (IA) has been widely documented. However, changes and instability of the comorbidity between negative emotional symptoms and IA over time are not fully understood.

Methods: A sample of 453 first-year senior high school students completed all measures three times across one-year period and were included in the current study. The sample consisted of 163 (36.0%) males and 290 (64.0%) females. At the baseline, the mean age of the participants was 15.07 ± 0.46 (range: 12-16) years old. Latent class analysis was used to identify the latent class pattern. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was utilized to examine the association between covariates and latent classes at baseline. Latent transition analysis was applied to explore the changes in latent classes of individuals over time.

Results: Three subgroups of negative emotional symptoms, IA and their comorbidity were identified at all the three time points. Being Internet gamers, high average time of Internet use every day, peer exclusion, verbal and physical bullying experience, and poor self-rated health were found to be significant predictors of the high comorbidity symptom. Students were more likely to remain the same class rather than moving between the latent classes across time.

Conclusions: A better understanding of change characteristics in latent classes across time contributes to confirm an appropriate time for intervention targeted on students who converted from low symptom class to the high class.