Who Uses What, and Why It Matters: Internet Use Profiles and Mental Health Outcomes Among Chinese Adolescents

Adolescents' digital engagement is increasingly diverse, yet most research remains focused on single behaviors and WEIRD contexts. This study adopts a person-centered approach to examine content-specific internet use patterns among Chinese adolescents and their associations with psychological outcomes.A sample of 531 middle school students (ages 12–14) from an urban Chinese school completed surveys assessing internet use across five domains (social media, video streaming, gaming, online reading, and academic use), alongside measures of device ownership, usage autonomy, and psychological well-being (SDQ, DASS, WEMWBS, and loneliness). Latent profile analysis identified four distinct usage patterns: Social Media/Video/Study-Centric (36%), Novel Reading-Centric (34%), Study-Centric (17%), and Gaming-Centric (13%).Profiles differed meaningfully by demographic characteristics, ownership and autonomy. Males were significantly more likely to belong to the Gaming- and Study-Centric groups, while females were more represented in the Social Media/Video-Centric group. Greater device autonomy predicted membership in the Study-Centric profile. Psychological outcomes varied across groups: the Novel Reading-Centric group reported the highest levels of loneliness and internalizing/externalizing difficulties, while the Study-Centric group demonstrated lower distress and higher prosocial behavior. Unexpectedly, the Gaming-Centric group reported the highest overall well-being.These findings highlight the value of moving beyond total screen time to examine the type and context of digital engagement. Platform-specific usage profiles are differentially associated with adolescent mental health, with implications for intervention, parenting, and policy, particularly in non-WEIRD, highly regulated settings like China.