Internet addiction: Prevalence and relation with mental states in adolescents

Abstract

Aim: Internet addiction disrupts the daily lives of adolescents. We investigated the prevalence of Internet addiction in junior high school students, elucidated the relation between Internet addiction and mental states, and determined the factors associated with Internet addiction in adolescents.Methods: Junior high school students (aged 12-15 years) were assessed using Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Japanese version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and a questionnaire on access to electronic devices.Results: Based on total IAT scores, 2.0% (male, 2.1%; female, 1.9%) and 21.7% (male, 19.8%; female, 23.6%) of the total 853 participants (response rate, 97.6%) were classified as addicted and possibly addicted, respectively. Total GHQ scores were significantly higher in the addicted (12.9 AE 7.4) and possibly addicted groups (8.8 AE 6.0) than in the non-addicted group (4.3 AE 4.6; P < 0.001, both groups). A comparison of the percentage of students in the pathological range of GHQ scores revealed significantly higher scores in the possibly addicted group than in the non-addicted group. Further, accessibility to smartphones was significantly associated with Internet addiction.Conclusion: Students in the addicted and possibly addicted groups were considered 'problematic' Internet users. Use of smartphones warrants special attention, being among the top factors contributing to Internet addiction.

The Relationship Between Internet Addiction and General Health in Students of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences-Iran, 2015: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Also, results showed that Internet addiction score increased in the same direction with all general health aspects. Several studies confirm the current results (12)(13)(14). Gholamian et al's study showed that anxiety, depression, and stress were significantly higher in Internet addicted users (14).…”

“…The desired level of general health status was observed in users, who had mild level of addiction to the Internet (11). In addition, in the study of Kawabe et al in 2016 on 12-to 15-year-old high school students in Japan, Internet addicted students had high general health scores (12). Another study on Internet addiction and its psychological effects performed on nursing students in Gaza and Palestine in 2014 showed a positive and significant relationship between Internet addiction and psychological effects (13).…”

Associations between problematic Internet use and psychiatric symptoms among university students in Japan

“…Fifth, the IAT was developed about two decades ago under conditions where Internet access was limited, and therefore the cut‐off values of IAT 40 might be inappropriate to define ‘problematic’ Internet use now. As the IAT includes questions regarding dysfunctionality associated with Internet use (such as ‘How often do your job performance or productivity suffer because of the internet?’), we considered IAT to still be usable today, in addition to the fact that many studies to date have used the scale . However, we believe that the invention of a new scale to better fit modern Internet use is required in the near future.…”

“…You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.’). In this study, we defined subjects with an IAT ≥ 40 as the PIU group and those with an IAT ≤ 39 as the non‐PIU group, as similarly defined in some previous studies …”

Problematic Internet use and its associations with health‐related symptoms and lifestyle habits among rural Japanese adolescents

“…Although Kawabe et al . reported that PIU was related to the mental health of junior high‐school students in the suburbs of Ehime, studies on its relationship with lifestyle habits, such as sleep and study time, that might lead to the early detection of junior high‐school students with PIU have been scarce. Moreover, PIU may be related to orthostatic dysregulation (OD), ‘a functional physical disorder with an impairment of circulatory adjustment against gravitational stress because of dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system.’ The main factors of OD have been thought to be psychological stress and changes in adolescents’ hormone balance .…”