Ever-increasing advances in technology and deficiencies in technical expertise have raised questions about the interplay between internet addiction and health variables. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of digital literacy in the relationships among internet addiction, cognitive ability, and the general health subscale scores of secondary school students. Two hundred and eight high school students from Fanuj, Iran, were selected via cluster sampling. To collect the data, Kimberly Young’s (1998) internet addiction questionnaire, Nejati’s (Advances in Cognitive Science, 15 (2), 11–19, 2013) cognitive ability questionnaire, Goldberg and Hillier’s (Psychological Medicine, 9, 139–145, 1979) general health questionnaire, and Rodríguez-de-Dios et al.’s (2016) digital literacy questionnaire were used. To analyze the data, partial least squares path modeling was used. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient tests revealed that internet addiction had a significant negative correlation with cognitive ability and a significant positive correlation with general health subscales. Using Smart PLS software, digital literacy as a moderator variable, negated the impacts and had a significant positive influence on cognitive ability in the model. However, a significant negative effect on the social dysfunction subscale of general health was found. The use of digital literacy workshops and interventions may mediate students’ cognitive ability and general health subscale scores.
