Associations Between Childhood Trauma, Emotion Regulation Strategies, and Internet Addiction in Iranian Female Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Structural Equation Modeling Study

Abstract

Background: Early traumatic childhood experiences (TCEs) have been recognized as a significant risk factor for internet addiction (IA), particularly during adolescence, a developmental stage in which emotion regulation abilities are still developing. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERSs), including both adaptive and maladaptive forms, may serve as important intermediate variables associated with statistically indirect pathways in this relationship. Objectives: This study investigated the associations among TCEs, adaptive and maladaptive CERSs, and IA tendencies in Iranian female adolescents using a cross-sectional structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used in this study. A total of 350 female high school students attending public schools in Qom, Iran, were recruited using a multistage cluster sampling procedure. Participants had a mean age of 15.4 years (SD = 1.01). Data were collected using the validated Persian versions of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed using SmartPLS (v.3.3.7). Indirect associations were evaluated using bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples. Results: TCEs were significantly positively associated with IA tendency (β = 0.22, P < 0.001, 95% CI, [0.11, 0.32]). Maladaptive CERSs showed a significant positive indirect association between TCEs and IA tendency (β = 0.07, P < 0.001, 95% CI, [0.04, 0.11]). Similarly, adaptive CERSs showed a significant indirect association (β = 0.23, P < 0.001, 95% CI, [0.16, 0.31]). The overall indirect association was significant (β = 0.30, P < 0.001, 95% CI, [0.21, 0.39]). Conclusions: Childhood trauma was associated with higher IA tendencies, and these associations were characterized by distinct statistical indirect pathways through adaptive and maladaptive CERSs. Given the cross-sectional design of the study, the findings do not imply causal mediation. Nevertheless, the results highlight emotion regulation as an important target for school-based preventive and clinical interventions for trauma-exposed female adolescents.