Modeling the Relationship between Alcohol Use and Internet Addiction: The Mediating role of Emotion Regulation

BashirGonbadi, Sepideh; Rahmani, Keyhan; Naderi, Sana

doi:10.22034/jrc.2026.145545.1037

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ PhD in Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

² B.A. student in Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22034/jrc.2026.145545.1037

Abstract

Background and Objective: In recent years, with the spread of new addictive behaviors and the increase in drug and alcohol use among young people, attention to the underlying psychological mechanisms of these behaviors has become more important than ever. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to model the relationship between alcohol consumption tendencies and cyberspace addiction with the mediating role of emotion regulation in students.
Method: The research method was descriptive, correlational, and based on path analysis. The statistical population included all students of Malayer University in the academic year 2025-2026, from which the research sample was 250 people selected from them through a convenient method and they responded to the research tools including Sheikh's Alcohol Consumption Propensity Questionnaire (2014), Young's Internet Addiction Questionnaire (1998), and Gratz and Roemer's Emotion Regulation Difficulty Questionnaire (2004). The collected data were entered into SPSS version 26 software. Also, path analysis was used in AMOS version 24 software to test the conceptual model of the research and examine the direct effect of alcohol consumption on cyberspace addiction and its indirect effect through emotion regulation.
Findings: The findings showed that difficulty in regulating emotions (β=0.28) had a direct and significant effect on alcoholism; parental cyberspace addiction (β=0.34) had a direct and significant effect on difficulty in regulating emotions. Cyberspace addiction (β=-0.30) had a direct and significant effect on alcoholism. The results also showed that difficulty in regulating emotions had a mediating role in the relationship between alcoholism and cyberspace addiction (β=0.098,P<0.05).
Conclusion: These results support transdiagnostic frameworks in addiction pathology that emphasize the role of emotional processes as a mediator between individual vulnerabilities and the emergence of addictive behaviors. Therefore, preventive and therapeutic interventions focused on improving emotion regulation skills can be effective in simultaneously reducing alcohol use and cyberspace addiction.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Psychology

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Modeling the Relationship between Alcohol Use and Internet Addiction: The Mediating role of Emotion Regulation

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Volume 1, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4February 2026Pages 307-317

Volume 1, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
February 2026
Pages 307-317