Internet and game behaviour at a secondary school and a newly developed health promotion programme: a prospective study

Abstract

BackgroundThis study investigated the Internet and game use of secondary school children, the compulsiveness of their use and the relationship with other health behaviours. It also evaluated the preliminary results of a recently developed school health promotion programme, implemented at a secondary school in the Netherlands in January 2008. This programme is one of the first to combine seven health behaviours in one educational programme and is a pilot project for a case-control study.MethodsA total of 475 secondary school children completed an extensive questionnaire before and a year after starting the programme. Of these children, 367 were in first, second and third grade; the grades in which the lessons about internet and game behaviour were implemented. Questionnaires contained questions about personal information, Internet and game use (Compulsive Internet Use Scale), and other health behaviours (alcohol use, physical activity, psychosocial wellbeing and body mass index).ResultsHeavy Internet use was significantly associated with psychosocial problems, and heavy game use was significantly associated with psychosocial problems and less physical activity. No relationship was found with alcohol use or body mass index. The time spent on Internet (hours/day) and the number of pathological Internet users increased during the study. The number of game users decreased but heavy game use increased.ConclusionThe association between heavy Internet use and psychosocial problems and between game use and psychosocial problems and less physical activity emphasizes the need to target different health behaviours in one health education programme. A case-control study is needed to further assess the programme-induced changes in Internet and game behaviour of school children.

Prevention of Internet addiction: A systematic review

“…de Leeuw et al. (2010) describe a health promotion program delivered to 367 children aged 11–16 years; the intervention focused on education on health issues (Internet and gaming behavior was among the seven health behaviors addressed) and delivered in blocks of 2 hr a week within three school years (the authors did not present the total number of hours). The results were rather inconsistent.…”

“…Six of them (Table 1) described and/or evaluated specific prevention interventions (Busch, de Leeuw, & Schrijvers, 2013; de Leeuw, de Bruijn, de Weert-van Oene, & Schrijvers, 2010; Korkmaz & Kiran-Esen, 2012; Shek, Ma, & Sun, 2011; Turel, Mouttapa, & Donato, 2015; Walther, Hanewinkel, & Morgenstern, 2014). For the purpose of the study, were extracted data relevant to these areas: (a) country in which were data collected, (b) key characteristics of the participants (sample size and segment of the population assessed), (c) intervention characteristic, (d) risk of bias in individual studies, and (e) methodological features (objectives, assessment methods, type of study, and design).…”

Swedish parents’ activities together with their children and children’s health: A study of children aged 2–17 years

“…Other researchers report on the media's effects, both positive and negative, on children's cognitive, social and behavioral development [34], and on their academic outcomes [35]. Heavy Internet use and game use is shown to be associated with psychosocial problems and less physical activity [36]. The three negative statistically significant associations were found in the age group of 2-17 years, between their parents' high activity of doing homework, surfing/blogging on the internet, going shopping and LTI/disability.…”

Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy an Intervention for Possible Internet Addiction Disorder?

“…It may be controversial that IAD does exist though its hazardous effects of excessive Internet use as have been widely reported around the world [10,18,19,20,23,24,26,30,34,36,37,42,46,48,50,53,60,64]. Many pioneers have begun trying to find out treatments or interventions to alleviate or remove the negative consequences of uncontrolled Internet usage.…”