The demographic distribution of the adolescents and parents is shown in Table 1. Results showed 75.7% teens reported to have never been bullied, which means approximately a quarter of the children have ever experienced bullying. Adolescents reports to go online on average of 1.55 (standard deviation=1.87) hours during schooldays, and 3.62 on days without school. Additionally, 5.3% of the teens reports to go online more than 5 hours on schooldays and 25.9% on days without school. The majority of the teens reported to exercise on a regular basis (82.1%).
Two SEMs were analyzed to investigate the pathway relationship of internet use, absorptive trait, bullying, depressive state and level of happiness in teenagers, with maternal care and exercise being the resilience factors within the model. The first model included internet use as a continuous variable, and in the second model internet use was dichotomized into those who were online less than 1 hour or more than 5 hours a day (those who reported to go online between 1 and 5 hours were excluded in this model).
The first SEM of the pathway relationship of internet use (during schooldays and on off schooldays), absorptive trait, bullying, depressive state, maternal care, exercise and level of happiness in teenagers is shown in figure 1. The model resulted in a good fit, with p value of .217 (greater than .05), AGFI of .999 (greater than .9), and RMSEA of .004 (less than .08). Factors which were associated with the teenagers’ time spent online included the teenagers’ sex, perceived mother care, and the level of absorptive trait. Those who perceived lower maternal care and/or higher absorptive trait were associated with more hours of internet use during schooldays (β=.05, p<.001; β=-.09, p<.001; β=.11, p<.001). In a similar line, those who spent more hours online during school days, perceived lower maternal care, and/or higher absorptive trait were associated with more hours of internet use on days they don’t have to go to school (β=.56, p<.001; β=-.06, p<.001; β=.09, p<.001). Teenagers who spent more time online (both during schooldays and off schooldays), perceived less mother care, higher absorptive trait, have been bullied, and/or were female reported to be more depressed (β=.02, p=.010; β=.02, p=.012; β=-.06, p<.001; β=.17, p<.001; β=.18, p<.001; β=.05, p<.001). Factors associated with level of happiness included maternal care, absorptive trait, exercise, internet use during schooldays and on days without school, being bullied and depressive state. Teens that perceived higher maternal care, exercised more, had never been bullied, had lower absorptive trait and depressive level had better overall level of happiness (β=.32, p<.001; β=.12, p<.001; β=-.07, p<.001; β=-.16, p<.001; β=-.20, p<.001). Teens that spent more time online on days without school perceived lower level of happiness (β=-.02, p=.003).
The second SEM investigated the pathway differences of sex, maternal care, absorptive trait, exercise, internet use during schooldays and depressive state in teens that spent more than five hours and less than an hour online during schooldays, as shown in figure 2. The model resulted in a good fit, with a p value of .862, AGFI of 1.000, and RMSEA of less than .001. Similar to the results of the first figure, females, those who perceived lower maternal care, have been bullied and/or higher absorptive trait were more likely to spend more than five hours online per day during schooldays (β=.05, p<.001; β=.03, p=.011; β=-.10, p<.001; β=.09, p<.001). This model further found, teens who spend more than five hours online schooldays were less likely to exercise, and more likely to be depressed (β=-.05, p<.001; β=.05, p<.001). Those who perceived higher maternal care, lower absorptive trait, less frequency of being bullied, exercised more, and less depressed reported to have higher level of happiness (β=.33, p<.001; β=-.18, p<.001; β=-.06, p<.001; β=.11, p<.001; β=-.19, p<.001).
The third SEM investigated the pathway differences of sex, maternal care, absorptive trait, exercise, internet use in teens that spent more than five hours and less than an hour online during off schooldays. However, since the finding of this model was similar to that of the continuous internet use model (figure 1), the result of this model was not presented.