Internet altruistic behavior and subjective well-being among Chinese college students: A cross-lagged analysis

We explored the relationship between Internet altruistic behavior (IAB) and subjective well-being (SWB) to estimate the effects and directionality of that predictive relationship between the two. Employing cross-lagged models we examined the interaction between IAB and SWB, among 339 college students (females = 53.10%, mean age = 19.02 years, SD = 1.56 years). The students were tracked twice in a period of 5 months. Results showed that college students’ IAB increased significantly, while their SWB remained relatively stable during the two measurement periods. IAB and SWB had significant simultaneous and sequential correlations. SWB at Time 1 positively predicted IAB at Time 2, however, IAB at Time 1 did not significantly predict SWB at Time 2. Moreover, there was cross-gender invariance in the cross-lagged effect between IAB and SWB. Research topics in the current environment exhibit remarkable practical significance.