Aspects of individuation in relation to parents, dark triad and problematic internet use in emerging adults

Glavač, Timotej (author), Puklek Levpušček, Melita (author), Lep, Žan (author)

The prevalence of the internet in modern society poses challenges, such as addiction and problematic internet use. Several authors suggest that the internet contributes to rising mental health issues among youth. Despite family dysfunction being a well-documented risk factor for problematic internet use, there is limited research on individuation—an intrapsychic process focused on attaining autonomy while maintaining connectedness with parents. An additional noteworthy risk factor is dark personality traits. Based on the importance of these variables in the occurrence of problematic internet use, we examined two path models (separately for mothers and fathers) in which two aspects of individuation (connectedness and parental intrusiveness) along with the three dark triad traits were proposed to predict the deficient self-regulatory aspects of problematic internet use (compulsive use and withdrawal). Furthermore, we hypothesized that the relationship between the aspects of individuation and deficient self-regulation would be moderated by the dark triad traits. Our sample comprised 392 emerging adults, aged 19 to 30 years (M = 22.67, SD = 2.88), with 74.5% being female. The models demonstrated satisfactory fit to the data concerning both mothers and fathers, and psychopathy emerged as a significant moderator in the relationship between paternal intrusiveness and withdrawal. The models elucidated moderate proportions of the variance in outcome variables (R$^2$s ranging between 0.10 and 0.18) and substantiated the expectations derived from theory regarding the contribution of personality and relational factors in predicting deficient self-regulation in internet use.

• Language: English
• Keywords: individuation, internet usage, dark triad, emerging adulthood, path analysis, problematic internet use, emerging adults
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 14 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 45, iss. 2, art. 133
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179006
• UDC: 159.922.8-053.81
• ISSN on article: 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-025-08859-9
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263909635
• Publication date in RUL: 03.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Current psychology
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1936-4733
• COBISS.SI-ID: 515407129

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: osamosvajanje, uporaba interneta, temna triada, prehod v odraslost, analiza poti

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0062
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija