Children's Internet information seeking, life satisfaction, and loneliness: The mediating and moderating role of self-esteem

• Internet information seeking enhanced children's life satisfaction.
• Internet information seeking reduced children's feelings of loneliness.
• Self-esteem served as a mediator between these associations.
• Self-esteem moderated the effect of Internet information seeking on loneliness.

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between children's Internet information seeking, life satisfaction, and feelings of loneliness as well as the mediating and moderating role of self-esteem in these associations. A total of 455 Chinese elementary school students participated in two waves of a survey with a 6-month interval, and 19 of these students participated in focus group interviews. The results indicated that seeking school- and life-related information on the Internet predicted more life satisfaction and less loneliness through improved self-esteem. Furthermore, self-esteem moderated the effects of Internet information seeking on loneliness. Internet information seeking predicted less loneliness only for children with low self-esteem. A moderating role of self-esteem in the associations between Internet information seeking and life satisfaction was not found in this study.