Associations Between Internet Addiction, Psychiatric Comorbidity, and Maternal Depression and Anxiety: Potential Underlying Mechanisms [Response to Letter]

Dear editor

My co-authors and I appreciate Filho and Almeida’s insightful comments regarding our recent study highlighting the association between internet addiction (IA) in children and maternal depression and anxiety.

We agree with the importance of exploring the possible factors involved in this association. Our article notes that although the underlying mechanism remains unclear, maternal depression may make their child vulnerable to developing IA through the negative mother-child relationship. They kindly extended our understanding of the relationship, providing the four possible aspects. Depression in mothers may link to the lack of parental involvement, reduced time of supervising children, strengthening the child’s preference for online interaction as a coping skill, and the child’s higher risk of developing depression as a risk factor for IA. We agree with their opinions, possibly leading to preventive and therapeutic interventions.

They also gave us implications for further studies by focusing on the subtypes of IA and using PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Again, we appreciate their contribution to deepening the insight into the association between IA and maternal depression.

Given the increasing focus on children’s biological characteristics as a factor in IA, more research is needed to focus on the parent-child relationship, including how parental psychopathology affects the development of IA in children.