Depression has become one of the most important psychological problems in today's world (Pooja, 2021) [1]. It can cause people to feel depressed, and reduce their activity and language movements (Smith, 2014) [2]. Studies have shown that depression symptoms are caused by emotional disorder, which leads to physical and mental discomfort in individuals. Specific manifestations include sadness, despair, other emotions, and even suicidal tendencies (Cheung and Dewa, 2007) [3]. According to the results of the World Health Organization survey, at present, about 4.4% of the world's population suffers from depression, and more than 300 million people suffer from depression (WHO, 2017) [4]. Some studies have also found that in recent years, depression has gradually become younger, and there is an increasing number that young people suffering from depression, among which the depression of teenagers is particularly prominent (Servn-Mori et al., 2020) [5]. Adolescents suffering from depression not only affect their physical and mental development but also destroy family harmony, which is not conducive to social harmony and stability. Therefore, it is particularly important to explore the mechanism, possible influencing factors, and development path of adolescent depressive symptoms.
Internet addiction refers to the state that individuals overuse the Internet and even become addicted, which leads to personal psychological barriers and affects their normal life (Davis, 2001) [6]. A large number of studies show that Internet addiction is closely related to depression, and the Internet addiction rate of depressed people is significantly higher than that of normal people (Li et al., 2019) [7]. Studies have found that, Depressed patients with pessimism and anxiety generally have a low willingness to participate in social activities, while the social mode of virtual space can effectively avoid the friction and harm when people face to face with each other. More depressed people are more inclined to socialize online. Based on the substitution of online socialization, depressed individuals are also more prone to internet addiction (Kraut et al., 1998; Scott et al., 2009) [8–9], meanwhile, Depressed people will regulate their emotions through online media such as online shopping, watching videos and playing games (Kim et al., 2017) [10]. Secondly, some studies have found that Internet addiction is an important factor affecting depression. Long-term Internet use will reduce the communication between relatives and friends, reduce personal social adaptation, and fail to get enough social support. Leading to depression (Liang et al., 2016) [11]. In addition, there is also a scholar who believes that there is no direct correlation between depression and Internet addiction. Although depressed patients can compensate for individual interpersonal communication by using the Internet, it also reduces offline interaction (Anderson, 2001; Yao and Zhong, 2014) [12–13]. And they even think that Internet addiction can alleviate the depression of individuals. To some extent, the use of the Internet makes up for the social deficiency of depressed people (Przepiorka et al., 2019) [14]. Although there are many research on Internet addiction and depression, the relationship between them is still worth further exploring.
As the most primitive environment for an individual to grow up in, the family is generally a system unit formed by the interaction between parents and children. In this simple but complex set unit, the influence of the family atmosphere on individuals is self-evident (Mary et al., 2016) [15]. Relevant research shows that adolescent depression is closely related to the family atmosphere (Ribeiro et al., 2016) [16]. The family model theory holds that the better the atmosphere and environment of the family system, the better the family function, the more flexible the psychological quality and behavior of family members, and a bad family atmosphere will also lead to the risk of depression (Robert et al., 2000) [17]. The hopeless theory of depression also reflects that the family atmosphere has a negative effect on individual depression (Abramson et al., 1989) [18]. Teenagers have strong emotional dependence and emotional impulsiveness, and they are a high incidence of depression, and a good family atmosphere is extremely important for teenagers' emotional guidance and the cultivation of their ability to resist setbacks (Alison et al., 1998) [19]. Harmonious family relationships can promote teenagers' sense of social belonging, and positive parent-child interaction can also help teenagers enhance their psychological resilience (Guo, 2018) [20]. However, there is a complex endogenous relationship between adolescents' psychological state, emotional color, and depression. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the influence path of the family atmosphere on depression.
Based on China's education system, social culture, expectations of parents and teachers, and peer pressure, teenagers are more likely to suffer from depression due to their academic performance (Zhang et al., 2015) [21], many studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between academic performance and depressive symptoms (Verboom et al., 2013; Katherine et al., 2012) [22–23]. Some studies believe that low academic performance is more likely to produce negative emotions (Pomerantz et al., 2002) [24].In primary and secondary schools, teenagers' lack of academic performance, learning attitude, learning style, etc leads to negative events, and negative feedback from parents, teachers, and classmates, resulting in self-denial psychology, which makes them more prone to depression. On the other hand, Some scholars also believe that teenagers with good academic performance are at greater risk of depression. The essence of adolescent depression is the lack of self-worth, and losing self-worth is easy to lose self-confidence, thus falling into depression. Teenagers with good academic performance, parents, teachers, and self-expectations are relatively high, and academic achievement becomes the main source of their sense of value. Therefore, Compared to those with poor academic performance, 90% of them are under greater learning pressure, which makes them more vulnerable to the gap, thus increasing the risk of depression (Çelik, 2019) [25]]. Therefore, the relationship between academic performance and depression needs to be further verified.
Adolescents' problem behavior refers to the violation of general social behavior. The external causes of problem behavior mainly include factors such as family environment disorder, bad social environment, and incorrect guidance of values, while the internal causes are main factors such as mismatch between individual physiological development and psychological development, insufficient social adaptability, and frustration tolerance (Markova and Nikitskaya,2014) [26]. problem behavior can be divided into general problem behavior and extreme problem behavior. General problem behavior, such as smoking, drinking, and truancy, has relatively little impact on teenagers themselves and society, while extreme problem behavior, such as suicide caused by depression symptoms and murder caused by paranoid ideation, will cause immeasurable losses (Benda and Corwyn, 1998) [27]. Studies have found that Internet addiction and adolescents with Internet addiction tendency are more likely to have problem behavior (Lin et al., 2020) [28]. In addition, the theory of the "people in situation" perspective finds that the parent-child relationship is an important factor to reduce adolescent behavior (Pavkov et al., 2010; Li, 2016) [29–30]. Therefore, regarding the relationship between adolescents' problem behavior, internet addiction, family atmosphere, academic performance, and depressive symptoms, Further verification is required.
Self-control refers to the process in which individuals control their own behaviors, thoughts, and emotions, and make some corrections to achieve their subjective goals (Inzlicht et al., 2014)[31]. It has been found that the higher the self-control ability, the higher the adjustment ability of an individual's stress ability and emotional response, and the negative behavior can be reduced when negative feedback is received (Glenn, 2000; Finning et al., 2017) [32–33]. At present, more studies have introduced self-control into the field of psychology to improve addiction or aggressive behavior by training self-control ability (Remster, 2014) [34]. Related studies have found that the higher the self-control level of adolescents, the less depressed they are (Jun and Choi, 2013; Yang et al., 2017) [35–36]. At the same time, self-control ability can also play a regulatory role, including reducing external environmental factors such as family conflicts and poor academic performance (Li, 2004; Reisig and Pratt,2011) [37–38].In addition, relevant studies also show that self-control is an important factor affecting problem behavior, and it also plays an important intermediary role in the influence of other factors on problem behavior, such as parent-child relationship and social support (Cho et al., 2017)[39]. In view of this, this study will also explore the mediating role of self-control.
What is the relationship between Internet addiction, family atmosphere, academic performance, and depression among adolescents? Does self-control and problem behavior have mediating effects on adolescent depression? Can adolescents' depression in 2018 affect their depression in 2020? Based on the existing theoretical basis and literature, the research hypothesis is shown in Fig. 1:H1-1) Internet addiction is positively correlated with adolescent depression; H1-2) Family atmosphere is negatively correlated with adolescent depression; H1-3) Academic performance is positively correlated with adolescent depression; H2) problem behavior has a potential mediating role in the relationship between Internet addiction, family atmosphere, academic performance, and adolescent depression; H3) Self-control plays a potential mediating role in the relationship between Internet addiction, family atmosphere, academic performance, and adolescent depression; H4) problem behavior and self-control have chain mediating effects in the relationship between Internet addiction, family atmosphere, academic performance, and adolescent depression; H5) There are persistent effects in adolescent depression.
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