The development of the Internet has revolutionized the spread of information across the globe. Although the physical act of browsing the Internet could be largely solitary, the highly interactive nature of the Internet has created a virtual world-wide community. In this community people engage in a wide variety of online activities ranging from the exchange of information or ideas, socializing, and gaming, to more controversial activities like erotic interactions, gambling, and so on. The ease of accessibility of the Internet and the vast amount of activities have engaged a huge population, making the Internet a highly reinforcing and potentially addictive medium. The emergence of smartphones and tablet computers has further complicated the scenario. The round-the-clock availability of these mobile devices has blurred the boundary of Internet usage and it can be difficult for users to define when they are “logged in” to the Internet (Wallace, 2014). Mobile devices with Internet connectivity have become part of modern life (Hinić, 2011) and resulted in a large increase in online activities. Problematic Internet use has a potentially huge impact on individuals’ well-being (Young, 1998a). Problematic Internet use can create social disturbances as well as clinical issues, leading problematic users to experience academic, relational, financial, and occupational impairment as well as physical health problems in daily life. Despite all these consequences, whether or not problematic Internet use should be classified as a unidimensional psychiatric diagnosis is still being debated, given that Internet use is currently an umbrella term encapsulating a wide range of heterogeneous behaviors. So far, the only related disorder included by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) is Internet gaming disorder, which has been identified as a potential pathological condition (that is, a condition requiring further study). Other pathological uses of the Internet fall into various diagnostic categories, such as sexual dysfunction and gambling disorder, based on the nature of the resulting behavior. Nonetheless, there seem to be generic factors underlying the diversity of problematic Internet behaviors. Laconi et al. (2014) review 45 assessment tools relating to problematic Internet use or addiction. Despite discrepancies in the definition and factor structures of these tools, two common factors emerged, namely negative outcomes and compulsive use (see also Wallace, 2014). These two factors align closely with recent neurological studies showing that excessive Internet use shares similar neurobiological mechanisms with substance and behavioral addiction (Yuan et al., 2011), which might in turn be related to dysfunctional impulse control (Shapira et al., 2000; Cao et al., 2007).

A more generic approach to understanding problematic Internet use across a wide range of online activities is to study the underlying motivations of users. Several researchers suggest that problematic Internet use stems from unmet real-life needs and that it is a way to relieve the problems encountered in daily life (Young, 1998a; Chak and Leung, 2004; Song et al., 2004). The Internet offers a highly accessible and immediate medium for users to satisfy such unmet needs (Wan and Chiou, 2006a). With reference to self-determination theory, needs can be grouped into three major types; relatedness, competence, and autonomy (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Ryan and Deci, 2000). Relatedness refers to a desirable attachment to others involving love and care; competence denotes satisfying a sense of mastery, and autonomy refers to gaining satisfaction from one’s own choices and decisions and their enactment in a way that is coherent with one’s integrated sense of self. All three types of needs have been shown to be instrumental in explaining the motivational components of individual behaviors in educational, healthcare, psychotherapeutic, and sporting settings. They are also instrumental in explaining Internet usage (Chen and Jang, 2010; Barnes and Pressey, 2011; Zhao et al., 2011; Wang, 2014). For instance, engagement in online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can provide individuals with a sense of relatedness and autonomy by enabling them to connect with other people in a controlled manner (Wan and Chiou, 2006a; Sheldon et al., 2011; Nadkarni and Hofmann, 2012; Seidman, 2012). Participating in online gaming, on the other hand, could satisfy all three types of need via an intense interaction with other players (relatedness) to completing quests and achieving levels (competence), all through one’s own choices and decisions (autonomy; Kandell, 1998; Yee, 2006; Hsu et al., 2009). In general, the Internet has provided users with an immediate and easily accessible means to seek satisfaction and empowered them to control the way they present themselves regardless of their true identity or physical characteristics. It has thus become a very reinforcing stimulus.

The relationship between the satisfaction of needs and problematic Internet use can be further corroborated by the presence of psychological distress. In this context, psychological distress can be defined as general emotional disturbance related to negative mood, anxiety, and stress that most individuals will experience across their lifespan. Epidemiological studies show high levels of comorbidity between problematic Internet use and mood/anxiety disorders (Shaw and Black, 2006), and a positive correlation between psychological distress and severity of problematic Internet use (Young and Rogers, 1998; Caplan, 2002; Chak and Leung, 2004; Yuen and Lavin, 2004; Ebeling-Witte et al., 2007; Ceyhan and Ceyhan, 2008; Yeh et al., 2008). Davis’s (2001) cognitive behavioral model proposes that psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety, is an essential and significant catalyst of problematic Internet use. The psychological distress either develops from Internet use or exists long before this behavior is established, and can result from unmet needs (Ryan and Deci, 2000). For example, psychological distress can be associated with needs which are unmet as a result of shyness-induced social difficulties (Chak and Leung, 2004; Yuen and Lavin, 2004; Ebeling-Witte et al., 2007). Online communication provides shy individuals with a safety zone that enables them to avoid face-to-face interpersonal communication, freeing them from the negative and undesirable feelings associated with it. Individuals with poor offline social relationships seek compensation from online interactions (Bessière et al., 2008). These individuals therefore may come to depend on the Internet to connect with others in order to satisfy their need for relatedness, potentially leading to excessive use (Chak and Leung, 2004; Ebeling-Witte et al., 2007).

This study examines generic motivation factors leading to problematic Internet use. Generic motivation factors are used since the Internet has become an everyday tool for satisfying a wide range of human needs, and self-determination theory has also been shown to be useful in explaining Internet behaviors. It remains unclear how well self-determination theory explains the motivational components of problematic Internet use, and whether psychological distress acts as an essential catalyst in its development. We hypothesize that psychological distress acts as a mediator in developing behavioral patterns of excessive Internet use. On this basis, we propose a theoretical model in which problematic Internet use is fully mediated by psychological distress and originates from unfulfilled basic psychological needs (see Figure 1) while the direct path from basic needs to problematic Internet use is expected to be non-significant. We recruited University students to test our model because they are among the heaviest users of the Internet and we expected a relatively high proportion of problematic users. In addition, the identity change which one undergoes in early adulthood poses a significant risk for psychological distress. Students are accordingly a suitable population on which to test our theoretical model (Morahan-Martin and Schumacher, 2000; Widyanto and Griffiths, 2006; Yen et al., 2009).

This study addressed data from University students who used the Internet frequently and likely suffered some degree of problematic Internet use. SEM was applied in order to examine the interplay between psychological needs satisfaction, psychological distress, and problematic Internet use the results support the proposition that self-determination theory is instrumental in explaining the motivational components of problematic Internet use, and their relationship is mediated by psychological distress. Needs satisfaction was significantly and negatively associated with psychological distress, which itself was significantly and positively associated with problematic Internet use. This conforms to the hypothesized mediating role of psychological distress in problematic Internet use (Young, 1998b; Davis, 2001; Yeh et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2011).

Studies show that individuals will attempt to satisfy their needs through participating in different kinds of Internet activities (Kandell, 1998; Wan and Chiou, 2006a,b; Yee, 2006; Hsu et al., 2009; Back et al., 2010; Huang, 2010; Barnes and Pressey, 2011; Sheldon et al., 2011; Nadkarni and Hofmann, 2012; Seidman, 2012). The emergence of mobile technologies has broadened the functionality and utility of the Internet, thereby providing people with an easily accessible and immediate means to satisfy their basic needs. In this context, these findings extend our understanding of what motivates people to get involved in Internet activities in general. Based on the framework of self-determination theory, individuals look for ways to satisfy their basic needs, autonomy, competency, and relatedness online. If an individual fails to fulfill his or her basic needs, the level of psychological distress increases (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Such individuals are more likely to turn to Internet activities for compensation (Song et al., 2014) and may develop problematic use patterns. This is consistent with the comorbidity observed between mood/anxiety disorders and problematic Internet use in previous work (Shaw and Black, 2006) and with a recent report by Dong et al. (2011) suggesting symptoms relating to psychological distress significantly predict problematic Internet usage.

Using the Internet, especially via mobile devices, can be an immediate way to satisfy basic needs. Individuals feeling distress are more likely to make use of this approach (Song et al., 2014). Such individuals are not satisfied with conventional means and, as a result, Internet activities provide them an alternative way to gain satisfaction (Yuen and Lavin, 2004). Some users, however, being poorly adapted to this alternative method, fail to derive satisfaction from Internet activities thus leaving their needs unresolved. For example some Internet users receiving high levels of online social support do not feel their emotional loneliness alleviated (Hardie and Tee, 2007). In such circumstances, individuals’ unmet needs are unresolved and they may suffer from increased psychological distress which in turn motivates them to go online more often to satisfy their needs, creating a vicious cycle of Internet reliance. The development of reliance implies that the Internet is more than just a tool or a leisure activity, with users starting to develop compulsions as well as neglecting real-life issues. A number of studies show a significant association between problematic Internet use and escapism (Yee, 2006; Kuss et al., 2012). Individuals may use the Internet to escape the cognitive and emotional challenges arising from unsatisfying life circumstances offline (Henning and Vorderer, 2001). This hinders them from finding other ways to resolve their unmet needs and blocks effective intervention, further promoting the development of problematic Internet use (Ko et al., 2012).

The exploratory analysis and split-half model fitting presented here provide additional evidence for the proposed mechanism. Pairwise comparison indicated significant differences in basic needs satisfaction and psychological distress between the light and heavy user groups. The former demonstrated a marginally significant association between needs satisfaction and problematic Internet use. This supports the proposition that Internet users are motivated by an urge to fulfill their needs when they first engage in online activities. By contrast, the heavy user group showed a significant mediation effect for psychological distress, similar to that shown in the main analysis. Despite the reduced statistical power in the split-half analysis, the model was still a reasonable fit. Together with the observed differences in terms of psychological distress across the two groups, this exploratory analysis suggests that the amount of Internet use is associated with a reduction in basic needs satisfaction when usage is within the normal range (light users group). When Internet usage reaches a problematic level, this association is mediated by an increase in psychological distress.

An alternative explanation for our findings is that problematic Internet use significantly worsens psychological needs satisfaction. With the correlational nature of SEM, we could not rule out the possibility that problematic Internet use reciprocally influences psychological needs satisfaction. In fact, this reciprocal influence is a potential basis for the development of a vicious cycle. This alternative explanation should be further tested by studies adopting experimental manipulation on the amount of Internet use and examining psychological needs satisfaction as the outcome measure.

Psychological distress helps to identify individuals at risk of developing problematic Internet usage. Nevertheless, the results reported here suggest that measures for relieving psychological distress (Caplan, 2002; The Center for Internet Addiction, 2009) may not be enough to prevent and treat Internet addiction. An additional and alternative measure to help clients escape from the grip of the Internet might actually be to help them meet their real-life basic needs. One specific example is facilitating the improvement of social skills by individuals with social difficulties. This may ease problematic Internet use among such persons by fulfilling their needs of competence and relatedness through participation in social groups (Yeh et al., 2008). This will, in turn, allow these individuals to gain satisfaction from real-life situations.

Internet activities can provide a sense of satisfaction of basic psychological needs including competency, relatedness, and autonomy. Individuals who have developed psychological distress due to these unmet needs are particularly vulnerable to problematic Internet use. The compulsion to use the Internet also blocks individuals from looking for other way to resolve their distress, which in turn accelerates and intensifies the degree of problematic use. This study has extended self-determination theory to explain the motivational components of problematic Internet use, and provided empirical support for the mediating role of psychological distress between needs satisfaction and problematic Internet use. Effective interventions should therefore address the individual’s motivational needs as well as his or her psychological distress.

The Associate Editor Reinout W. Wiers declares that, despite being affiliated to the same institution as author Ting Yat Wong, the review process was handled objectively and no conflict of interest exists. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.