Equality of family communication and adolescents internet dependency: Mediation of self-efficacy and family conflicts

The present study examined the relation between family communication, self-efficacy and family conflicts, and on-line survey data on 998 Korean adolescents from 5th to 9th grades in school. The results showed that the higher the adolescents' self-efficacy, the higher the equality of family communication, In addition, the higher the equality of family communication, the lower the level of family conflicts, which in turn reduces the possibility of adolescents' internet dependency. A theoretical model, that predicts adolescents' internet dependency from family communication through the internal mediation of self-efficacy and the external mediation of family conflicts, was proved by path analysis. Specifically, parents' conversation style was especially important for the development of middle school students' self-efficacy, and the level of self-efficacy was more influential on primary school students' internet dependency. The level of perceived family conflicts predicted middle school students' internet dependency did better than that of their self-efficacy did. It was also possible that the adolescents 'internet dependency can be reduced to adult adolescents'. The level of perceived family conflicts predicted middle school students' internet dependency did better than that of their self-efficacy did. It was also possible that the adolescents 'internet dependency can be reduced to adult adolescents'. The level of perceived family conflicts predicted middle school students' internet dependency did better than that of their self-efficacy did. It was also possible that the adolescents 'internet dependency can be reduced to adult adolescents'