The aim of this study is to investigate how perceived personal discrimination and emotional intelligence affect the relationship between perceived social support and pathological Internet use of students in China. Data were collected from 560 students from primary and secondary schools in mainland China. Results showed that perceived social support could be a predictor of students’ perceived personal discrimination, and perceived personal discrimination could have a significant impact on students’ pathological Internet use. Perceived personal discrimination had a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived social support and pathological Internet use. In addition, emotional intelligence played a moderating role in the relationship between perceived social support and perceived personal discrimination, as well as between perceived personal discrimination and pathological Internet use. As a moderator, emotional intelligence can enhance the effect of social support perception on discrimination perception, and mitigate the effect of discrimination perception on individual pathological Internet use. This enlightens us that it is necessary to provide social support and improve emotional intelligence of primary and secondary school students and reduce their perceived personal discrimination, thereby reducing their pathological Internet use.

Introduction

Pathological Internet use (PIU) refers to excessive use of Internet that damages individuals’ social and psychological functions and affects their normal work and learning behaviors (Davis, 2001). Pathological Internet use among adolescents and children has become an increasingly concerned issue in the past decades (Hernández et al., 2019; Karaer & Akdemir, 2019). Along with its prevalence, the Internet plays an increasingly important role in the lives of children and teens. However, pathological Internet use has begun to endanger the physical and mental health of young people while the Internet brings speed and convenience (Zhang et al., 2019). There are 829 million Internet users in China, accounting for 20% of all Internet users worldwide (Lei et al., 2018). Among them, 21.6% (179.06 million) are under the age of 19 (CNNIC, 2019), and the rate of pathological Internet use among primary and secondary school students in China is 6.6% (Wang, Wang, & Fu, 2008). As more children become addicted to the Internet, their problem behaviors related to pathological Internet use have arisen accordingly (Stavropoulos, Alexandraki, & Motti-Stefanidi, 2013; Zhang, Qin & Ren, 2018; Zhang et al., 2019). Studies have found that pathological Internet use has negative effects on students’ academic performance (Zhang et al., 2019) and psychosocial development (Dong & Wang, 2013). Therefore, more attention should be paid to this phenomenon. It is very important to understand the factors contributing to pathological Internet use and how they interact. However, studies on the influencing mechanism of pathological Internet use are still at an early stage, and the understanding of its etiological factors and mechanism is rather limited (Kuss & Lopez-Fernandez, 2016). Therefore, it is urgent to explore the key influencing factors of pathological Internet use and their influencing mechanism.