Background Internet Addiction (IA) is often shown to be associated with health issues, but no study explicitly examined a possible gradient in the association between different levels of IA and health. This study aimed to examine if the levels of IA had a graded relationship with poor sleep quality, psychological distress, and self-rated health among university students in Bangladesh. Methods In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 625 students from six universities/colleges responded to an online survey that contained measures of internet addiction test (IAT), general health questionnaire (GHQ-12), sleep quality, and self-rated health. Modified Poisson regression models were fitted to estimate the adjusted risk ratios (RR) and confidence intervals (CI) of the associations between IA and health outcomes. Results The IA levels were associated with each of the three health outcomes in a linear fashion. Compared to the lowest IA quintile, the highest quintile remained associated with an increased risk of poor-quality sleeping (RR: 1.77; 95% CI: 1.26, 2.48), psychological distress (RR: 2.09; 95% CI: 1.55, 2.82), and worse self-rated health (RR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.96) after adjusting for socio-demographic covariates. There were also dose-response associations between IAT z-scores and health outcomes. The association between IAT z-scores and psychological distress was significantly stronger in males compared to females (p-value for interaction<0.05). Conclusions The study found strong gradients between levels of addiction to internet and health outcomes, suggesting that increased health risks may exist even at lower levels of internet addiction. The findings highlight the need for departure of current research from a focus on the classic dichotomy of problematic versus not problematic internet use and a move toward recognizing the potential hierarchical effects of IA on health.

The objective of the study was to investigate whether there is any relationship between parents' attitude towards math and their children's math anxiety. A cross sectional survey was conducted to explore the math anxiety among the student and their parents' attitude towards math. The data were collected from 200 participants (children n=100; parents n=100). The children age range was from 8-12 years, they were from different schools of Dhaka and parents' age range was from 27 to 55 years. "Math Anxiety scale for Secondary School Students" developed by Haque and Hossain (2013) was used to measure math anxiety of the children. 'Parents attitude towards math questionnaire' developed by the researcher was used to measure parents' anxiety. Correlation between parents attitude towards math and children's math anxiety was r=0.410. Result indicates that parent's attitude has significant effect on children's math anxiety, meaning that 17% of the math anxiety for secondary school student is due to parents' attitude towards math. Parents' gender has significant effect on math anxiety but children gender has no significant effect regarding math anxiety.

The purpose of this study was to adapt Stirling Children’s Well-Being Scale (SCWBS) for measuring well-being of children of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 238 students, ages between 10 to 16 years of three different schools of Dhaka city. Psychometric properties were measured through Cronbach’s alpha (0.746), split-half (0.782), test-retest (0.791), which were satisfactory, respectively at 0.05, 0.05, and 0.01 level of significance. The demonstration of construct validity with Beck Self-Concept Inventory for Youth (BSCI-Y) and Beck Anxiety Inventory for Youth (BAI-Y) (two subtests of Adapted Bangla Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Impairment Scale) were 0.668 and –0.350, respectively, and item-total correlation (0.258 to 0.451) was also satisfactory. Thus psychometric results support that Bangla SCWBS is suitable for use in Bangladesh context. Mental health professionals can use Bangla SCWBS as a useful tool to assess changes in children’s wellbeing from a positive psychological perspective. Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 25(2): 161-167, 2016 (July)

The present study aimed to adapt the Child and Adolescent Worry Scale (CAWS) to use in the context of Bangladesh. The original scale developed by Campbell and Rapee in 1994 consisted of 20 items and higher scores on the scale indicate higher anxiety. Standard procedure for adaptation was followed. Item analysis was done on school going 130 mainstream and special need children aged between 6 to 15 years. The Cronbach’s Alpha and test-retest reliability was found to be .799 and .858 respectively for the adapted scale indicating high level of reliability. Criterion-related validity was measured by calculating concurrent and postdictive validity. Concurrent validity was measured by computing correlation (r= .912, p=.001) between the adapted scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Similarly, correlation value of postdictive validity was found to be .806, p=.001. Both measures ensured that the adapted scale measures the same construct as the original one. Moreover, the Mann-Whitney U test also indicated that the scale could differentiate between the mainstream and special need children regarding their worry/anxiety. Worry score was greater for the special need children than the other group (U= 608.50 at p =.001). It indicates that the adapted scale has good sensitivity to varying levels of anxiety severity. The psychometric properties of the Bangla CAWS suggest that professionals and the researchers can use the scale to assess children and adolescent’s overall level of anxiety in Bangladeshi context. Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 30(3 CSI): 417-427, 2022 (June)