Pathological Internet use among Malaysia University Students: Risk factors and the role of cognitive distortion

•Cognitive distortion was the direct risk factor and mediator of PIU.•Motivation, stressful life events and loneliness were the distal risk factors of PIU.•Depression positively affect PIU through cognitive distortion.•The relation of PIU and its risk factors was consistent across Internet use groups.

This study examined the risk factors of Pathological Internet Use (PIU) and aimed to identify a structural model of PIU to explore the relationship between cognitive distortion, depression, motivation, loneliness, stressful life events and PIU. A total of 1493 undergraduate students with a mean age of 21.18 (SD = 1.73) years old from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) rated on the questionnaire including scales for PIU, cognitive distortion, depression, motivation, loneliness, and stressful life events. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was conducted to test the research models M1 and M2 which determined model M2 was better fit than M1. The result indicated that all the variables were significant risk factors for PIU, cognitive distortion was the mediator of PIU and partially mediated the effect from motivation and stressful life events to PIU, fully medicated the effect of depression to PIU; while, depression was the second mediator which partially and fully mediated the effect from stressful life events and loneliness respectively to cognitive distortion. The multi-group analysis was applied to test the difference or moderate effect of Internet use group (MMORPG, SNS, general) on the final structural model M2. The result confirmed the invariance of the structural model across groups. The discussions of results were based on cognitive-behavioral model and previous literatures related PIU. The implication of future study was discussed.