ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the mediating effect of psychological flexibility in the relationship between the two dimensions of type-D personality(negative affect and social inhibition)and pathological in-ternet use.Methods 592 university students were sampled from central China district and were adminis-tered with Adolescent Pathological Internet Use Scale(APIUS),Type-D personality scale(DS14)and Ac-ceptance and Action Questionnaire-Second Edition(AAQ-Ⅱ).Results Pathological internet use(2.56 ± 0.61)positively correlated with negative affect(1.58±0.78)and social inhibition(1.96±0.61)(r=0.37, 0.25)respectively,and negatively correlated with psychological flexibility(4.69±1.15)(r=-0.40).Path a-nalysis with latent variables showed psychological flexibility partially but significantly mediated the predictive effect of negative affect and social inhibition on pathological internet use.The mediation rates were 56% for negative affect and 62% for social inhibition.Conclusion Psychological flexibility has significant incremen-tal validity beyond two dimensions of type-D personality,and partially mediated the effect of negative affect and social inhibition on pathological internet use.These results suggest the intervention focus of PIU can be psychological flexibility.