The loss outweighs the gain: teacher criticism as a moderator in the relations between pathological internet use, learning maladaptation, and academic performance

This study is to determine how learning maladaptation and teacher criticism affect the relationship between pathological Internet use and academic performance. Results indicated that pathological Internet use could negatively predict students’ academic performance. Learning maladaptation had a mediating effect on the relations between pathological Internet use and academic performance. In addition, teacher criticism played a moderating role in the relations between pathological Internet use and learning maladaptation. As a moderator, although teacher criticism could alleviate the impact of pathological Internet use on learning maladaptation, using criticism might cause the loss outweighs the gain and directly worsen students’ learning maladaptation more.