The Effect of High School Students’ Academic/Grade Stress on Internet Over-dependence - Parallel Mediating Effects of School Bonding and Career Maturity -

In this study, we sought to examine the impact of high school students' academic/grade stress on Internet over-dependence and to verify whether school bonding and career maturity play a parallel mediating role between the two variables. For this purpose, a mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro model 4 on 320 high school students using data from the 16th Annual Children's Supplementary Survey of the Korea Welfare Panel. The main results are summarized as follows. First, Internet over-dependence was positively correlated with academic/grade stress and negatively correlated with school bonding and career maturity. Second, academic/grade stress had a positive effect on Internet over-dependence. Third, in the relationship between academic/grade stress and Internet over-dependence, the mediating effect of school bonding was not significant, but the mediating effect of career maturity was significant. Based on the results of this study, an intervention considering academic/grade stress, school bonding, and career maturity was proposed as a way to prevent high school students' over-dependence on the Internet.