Findings on the relationship between Internet addiction and psychological symptoms in Brazilian adults

Abstract

T his study evaluated the prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) and its association with negative psychological symptoms in Brazilian adults. A network analysis was conducted to estimate specific variables and their expected influence on IA. In this cross-sectional study, 15,476 adults (M age = 37.5, SD = 9.59) completed an open web-based survey. Three questionnaires were used: the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Based on IAT scores, participants were classified as No-Risk user (NRU), Low-Risk user (LRU) or High-Risk user (HRU). We observed that 4.8% of the participants were classified in the HRU group. In addition, their risk for severe symptoms of depression was 10 times higher and, for anxiety, seven times higher than that in the NRU group (p < .001). Time spent using smartphones was also significantly higher in the HRU group (M hours = 5.1, p < .001). The main factors associated with IA were depression, gender and anxiety, but the variable "having children" was the most influential in the IA network. These findings suggest that psychiatric symptoms are the main factors associated with IA among the adult population.

Validity and Reliability of the Brazilian Version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Long Version (SAS-LV)

“…A network analysis (NA) was also used to identify the psychometric properties of SAS-LV. This statistical model allows the evaluation of the correlation strength between scale items, as well as the connectivity (betweenness centrality), the proximity between them (closeness centrality), and the ratio of the number of links a variable has from the number of possible links (degree centrality) (Andrade et al 2020a;Epskamp et al 2018). A Gaussian graphical model was used with partial correlations being estimated with GLASSO (graphical Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) (Pinheiro et al 2020).…”

Understanding the Association Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Problematic Smartphone Use: A Network Analysis

“…This drawback has been demonstrated by several recent studies. For instance, individual PSU symptoms have shown different associations with self-control ( 21 ), problematic internet use ( 22 ) and neuroticism ( 23 ). Meanwhile, different components of IU were found to have distinct effects on generalized anxiety disorder ( 24 ).…”

Understanding juveniles’ problematic smartphone use and related influencing factors: A network perspective

“…For example, researchers have explored the central symptoms of PSU (Huang et al, 2020) or the validation of the smartphone addiction scale Andrade, Scatena, Martins, et al, 2020) from a network analysis perspective. In addition, several researchers have explored the interaction between Internet addiction and psychological symptoms from a network aspect (Andrade, Scatena, Bedendo, et al, 2020). However, although previous researchers have explored this area, they have not addressed the interaction between PSU and related factors from a more macro network perspective.…”