Compulsive Internet and Prevalence Substance Use among Spanish Adolescents

Abstract

This paper analyses compulsive Internet use among Spanish adolescents as measured by the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) of the ESTUDES 2016 survey (national survey on drug use in secondary schools), which was recently added to the statistical programme of the Spanish National Plan on Drugs. We examined two subsamples of Spanish adolescents (those who suffer from compulsive Internet use and those who do not) while taking into account gender and age. Our general hypothesis was that adolescents who suffer from compulsive Internet use have a greater prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, sedative, and new substance consumption as well as a greater prevalence of modes of consumption such as getting drunk, drinking with friends in public places (botellón), and binge drinking. While our results confirm these assumptions, they also suggest that gender and age play an ambivalent role in these associations.

Problematic Use of ICTs in Trainee Teachers during COVID-19: A Sex-Based Analysis

“…Internet use was risky for women before the pandemic, while it was not problematic for men, with significant differences between the two. This confirms the findings of a number of studies stating that women are likely to show more addiction symptoms (Cimadevilla, & Jenaro, 2019;López, 2018;Peris et al, 2020) and contradicts the research study by Fernández et al (2020), where no significant gender-based differences were found in a sample of young Spaniards in relation to Internet addiction. During the pandemic, genderbased results were reversed, as men scored higher than women, with significant differences despite the fact that they were both making a dependent use of the Internet.…”

Problematic Internet Use among Adolescents 18 Months after the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In Hong Kong, prevalence rates among secondary students are estimated to even reach up to 20% [ 67 ]. Comparably high values were found in a Spanish study: 24% of adolescents between 14 and 18 used the internet in a problematic way, with the intensity being highest among those between 16 and 17 years [ 68 ]. Chandrima et al also reported that 24.0% of adolescents from Bangladesh were problematic internet users and 2.6% had severe PIU [ 23 ].…”

Assessing the Association Between Internet Addiction Disorder and Health Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Considering the differences in sociocultural and economic background among populations, there is no standard recognized assessment tool for health risk behavior assessment at present, and many studies are based on self-report questionnaires prepared by researchers . Some studies included data on engaging in at least once health risk behaviors in the past 30 days (20,38,40,41,45,48), some included data on the use of relevant questionnaires to assess health risk behaviors (35,42,44,46,47,49), and others only included data on often or frequent occurrences of health-risk behaviors (37), which reduced the accuracy of the results. The assessment tools for health risk behaviors should be more standardized in the future.…”

“…Nine studies were used to evaluate the association between IAD and smoking (20,37,40,45), suicidal behavior (20,37,39,43) and drinking (37,40,42,45,47,48). The heterogeneity was not significant (I 2 < 50%), and a fixed-effects model was applied.…”