Behavioural Addiction and Impulse Control Difficulties in Adolescents: a Systematic Review of Psychological Mechanisms, Risk Factors, and Intervention Strategies in the Digital Age
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Background: The proliferation of digital technologies has dramatically expanded adolescent exposure to potentially addictive online behaviours. Smartphones, social media platforms, online gaming, and digital gambling constitute a new frontier of behavioural addiction that poses serious developmental risks, particularly for the prefrontal cortical systems governing impulse control. Objective: This systematic review investigates the psychological mechanisms, risk factors, and intervention strategies associated with behavioural addiction and impulse control difficulties in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a structured search was conducted across literatures published. The Taro Yamane (1967) formula was applied to a secondary empirical component involving 10,000 secondary-school adolescents, producing a stratified sample of n = 380. Results: Findings confirm that behavioural addiction significantly predicts impulse control difficulties (H1 supported). Emotional dysregulation emerged as a robust mediator (H2 supported), and executive function deficits as a significant partial mediator (H3 supported). Poor parental monitoring was confirmed as a moderating vulnerability factor (H4 supported). Adolescents with multiple concurrent digital addictions demonstrated significantly worse impulse control outcomes than those with single-addiction profiles (H5 supported). Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) emerged as the most evidence-supported intervention for reducing both addiction severity and impulse control deficits (H6 supported). Conclusions: Behavioural addiction in the digital age exerts a compounding and clinically significant impact on adolescent impulse control through neuropsychological and emotional mechanisms. School-based, family-inclusive, and CBT-anchored interventions represent the most defensible clinical pathways. Future research must address cumulative digital addiction effects and develop context-sensitive interventions for low-and-middle-income countries
Author: Dr Oyearone, Iroro
Institution: Dennis Osadebay University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204440679
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