A Twin Study of Problematic Internet Use: Its Heritability and Genetic Association With Effortful Control.

Li, Mengjiao; Chen, Jie; Li, Naishi; Li, Xinying

Our goal was to estimate genetic and environmental sources of influence on adolescent problematic internet use, and whether these individual differences can be explained by effortful control, an important aspect of self-regulation. A sample of 825 pairs of Chinese adolescent twins and their parents provided reports of problematic internet use and effortful control. Univariate analysis revealed that genetic factors explained 58–66% of variance in problematic internet use, with the rest explained by non-shared environmental factors. Sex difference was found, suggesting boys’ problematic internet use was more influenced by genetic influences than girls’ problematic internet use. Bivariate analysis indicated that effortful control accounted for a modest portion of the genetic and non-shared environmental variance in problematic internet use among girls. In contrast, among boys, effortful control explained between 6% (parent report) and 20% (self-report) of variance in problematic internet use through overlapping genetic pathways. Adolescent problematic internet use is heritable, and poor effortful control can partly explain adolescent problematic internet use, with effects stronger for boys. Implications for future research are discussed.

HUMAN behavior; TWIN studies; GENDER differences (Psychology) in adolescence; HERITABILITY; RESEARCH on Internet users; INTERNET addiction in adolescence; CONTROL (Psychology) in adolescence; GENETICS

Twin Research & Human Genetics, 2014, Vol 17, Issue 4, p279

1832-4274

Academic Journal

10.1017/thg.2014.32