Socio-occupational factors and problematic internet use: indirect associations involving negative affect and impulsivity in a predominantly urban, highly educated Romanian adult sample

Background Problematic internet use (PIU) has been associated with emotional distress, impulsivity, and occupational factors, but their interrelations remain insufficiently examined in adult populations. Guided by the Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I-PACE) model, this study examined socio-occupational, emotional, and self-regulatory correlates of PIU. Objective We investigated whether perceived social support, work engagement, and work addiction were indirectly associated with PIU through negative affect and trait impulsivity within a theory-specified sequence. Method A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 215 Romanian adults from a predominantly urban and highly educated convenience sample (59.5% women; M age = 37.11, SD = 9.16). Participants completed Romanian-language measures of perceived social support, work engagement, work addiction, depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, impulsivity, and PIU. Pearson correlations, hierarchical regression, and serial indirect-effect analyses (PROCESS Model 6; 10,000 bootstrap samples) were conducted. Primary models controlled for age, gender, and daily personal internet use; supplementary analyses examined mutual adjustment among the socio-occupational predictors and alternative mediator ordering. Results PIU was negatively associated with perceived social support and work engagement and positively associated with work addiction, depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and impulsivity. The final regression model explained 45.5% of PIU variance. In all three primary models, the indirect associations through negative affect and through the serial sequence involving negative affect and impulsivity were significant, whereas those through impulsivity alone were not. The theory-specified serial associations remained significant after mutual adjustment. Under the reversed mediator ordering, the serial indirect association was significant for perceived social support and work engagement, but not for work addiction. Work addiction retained a significant direct association with PIU. Conclusion The findings were consistent with selected components of the I-PACE model. Negative affect represented a prominent indirect pathway, while work addiction showed both direct and indirect associations with PIU. Because all variables were measured concurrently, the findings do not establish temporal precedence or causal mechanisms but may inform further research in comparable adult samples.