Cross-cultural study of Problematic Internet Use in nine European countries

Abstract

Reply to reviewersReviewer #1 Comment 1: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between Problematic Internet Use (PIU) and time spent online, online activities and psychopathology, by taking cross-cultural and gender differences into account. Additionaly it was aimed to explore the prevalence of PIU among European Internet users according the 5593 responding internet users. The topic is timely and interesting.It is not clearly explained if problematic gaming, gambling and pornography are subdimensions of Problematic Internet Use (PIU) or different independent variables. Answer 1:We provided some additional information on page 1: "Therefore, PIU represents generalized PIU (Davis, 2001) and can include several specific uses, such as online gaming, gambling or pornography use (Laconi, Tricard, & Chabrol, 2015).".Comment 2: Which gap in the literature will be filled through this research, in other words what is the value added to the literature by this paper?Answer 2: We added additional information regarding this thanks to this comment, as follows: "Cross-cultural studies allow a better understanding of results given the use of the same methodology, timeline or statistical analysis. However, few cross-cultural studies have been performed on PIU, despite it being an international health issue. To our knowledge, only one cross-cultural study explored PIU among 989 adults of four European countries (Sariyska et al., 2014), the others being focused on adolescents, and none exclusively among European users. PIU has been the subject of many studies since the last decade, but there is a need for cross-cultural empirical research.". Comment 3: The possible reasons of the differences between countries based on the results of the study need to explained.Answer 3: More explanation has been provided in the discussion section and the second paragraph of this section begins by "Apart from the question of whether PIU as a phenomenon is on the increase, it is fascinating that comparing the countries we investigated, startling differences in the numbers of problematic users were found. Further research is *Response to Reviewers needed to determine whether a stable pattern emerges and what the reasons for these differences may be.".Besides, in the limitations section, we added: "Cultural background may be a weaker predictor of online behavior than age of onset for Internet use or participation in specific online communities. It can be argued that the Internet is facilitating the spread of new trends worldwide at a much faster rate than before, but also that it creates an international community in its own right, which is evident with the community of online gaming or social media.". Comment 4: The conclusion part is not satisfactory, also implications are missing. Answer 4:The conclusion has been modified. As all the reviewers suggested, an Implication section has been added.Comment 5 : Although the researchers tried to sample all ages, 2/3 of it is university students which can dominate the sample and may lead to ...

Prevalence and Psychiatric Risk Factors of Excessive Internet Use among Northern Bangladeshi Job-Seeking Graduate Students: A Pilot Study

“…A study conducted in six Asian countries using IAT with a cutoff score of 70 on the IAT reported the following prevalence rates: South Korea (14%), China (19%), Hong Kong (35%), Malaysia (37.5%), Japan (48%), and Philippines (51%) (Mak et al 2014), whereas 14 to 55% was suggested as problematic use in nine European countries (Laconi et al 2018). A study of There may be several reasons explaining why no one in the present study was classed as being addicted to the internet.…”

“…IA has been considered to be a public health problem (Bener and Bhugra 2013) and has been studied more in developed and developing countries. In a European study including nine countries, the prevalence rate of problematic internet use ranged between 14 and 55% (Laconi et al 2018). A study comprising six Asian countries found that the prevalence rate of IA using IAT with a cutoff score of ≥ 70 ranged between 14 and 51% (Mak et al 2014).…”

The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Psychopathological Symptoms, and Problematic Internet Use: A Complex Mediation Model (Preprint)

“…When predictor variables have been examined for problematic internet use, findings have also been consistent. In the majority of studies, depressive [1,14,10,12,13,5,15] and obsessivecompulsive symptoms [8,1,9,14,13,4,15] have been found to be the most significant predictors of problematic internet use.…”

“…To date, most empirical studies have found a positive association between problematic internet use (PIU) and psychopathological symptoms both in normal samples of adolescents [1][2][3][4][5] and adults [6][7][8][9][10][11]. A few studies have examined this relationship among clinical samples (i.e., among diagnosed internet addicts), comparing them to healthy control groups [2,12,13] or clinical control groups [14,15].…”

“…Additionally, several studies have reported important predictors of problematic internet use (or they are present at a more extensive level in the group of problematic internet users) including hostility [1,9,13,4,5], anxiety [10,12,5,13] and interpersonal sensitivity [8,1,15]. One longitudinal study (i.e., [16]) has provided indicative data concerning the cause-andeffect between problematic internet use and psychopathological symptoms.…”