Relationship between loneliness and academic procrastination with cyberspace addiction in single-parent adolescents’ academic

Background Adolescents from single-parent families experience unique psychosocial challenges that increase their vulnerability to loneliness, academic procrastination, and problematic cyberspace use. Although these risks are well-documented individually, the interrelationships among these factors within this specific population remain inadequately understood. Objectives This study examined the relationships between loneliness, academic procrastination, and cyberspace addiction among single-parent adolescents and assessed the extent to which these factors predict problematic cyberspace use. Methods A correlational design was employed with 140 single-parent adolescents aged 15–18 years from Shanghai, recruited through purposive sampling. Participants completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Academic Procrastination Scale, and Young’s Internet Cyberspace Test (1998). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression analysis. Results The results revealed significant positive correlations between loneliness and cyberspace addiction ( r = 0.760, p < 0.01) and between academic procrastination and cyberspace addiction ( r = 0.561, p < 0.01). Stepwise regression analysis indicated that loneliness alone accounted for 33.1% of the variance in cyberspace addiction (R 2 = 0.331). The inclusion of academic procrastination significantly enhanced the predictive model, with both factors together explaining 59.1% of the total variance (R 2 = 0.591, ΔR 2 = 0.260). Conclusion Loneliness and academic procrastination serve as significant predictors of cyberspace addiction among single-parent adolescents. These findings underscore the importance of integrated intervention strategies in educational and clinical settings that simultaneously address emotional wellbeing and academic coping skills to mitigate problematic cyberspace use in this vulnerable population.