School-Related Risk Factors of Internet Use Disorders

Abstract

A growing body of research focusing on the risk factors of Internet use disorder (IUD) underlines the effect of sociodemographic variables like age and gender or comorbid mental disorders on IUD symptoms. The relation between IUD symptoms and school-related variables has to date been insufficiently studied. The present study closes this gap by investigating the relation between school-relevant factors such as absenteeism, school grades, procrastination, school-related social behavior, and learning behavior and IUD symptoms in a high-risk sample. n = 418 students between 11 and 21 years of age (M = 15.10, SD = 1.97), screened for elevated risk of IUD, participated in the study. Sociodemographic data, school grades and absent days, Internet use variables (time spent online and gaming), as well as school-related psychological variables (procrastination, learning behavior, and social behavior) were assessed via self-report questionnaires. IUD symptoms were assessed with an adapted version of the German Video Game Dependency Scale (CSAS), which is based on the 9 criteria for Internet gaming disorder in the DSM-5. The instrument was adapted to include the assessment of non-gaming IUD symptoms. Taking the hierarchical structure of the data into account, a multilevel modeling approach was used to analyze the data. Procrastination, time spent online, and gaming were significant predictors of IUD symptoms at the individual level, whereas social behavior significantly predicted symptoms of IUD at the school level. In addition to previous findings on risk factors of IUD, this study indicates the importance of school-related factors in the development of IUD, especially psychological factors that play a role in the school setting. The early age of IUD onset and the high relevance of prevention of IUD at the school age underline the relevance of this finding.

Academic Procrastination and Social Anxiety as Predictive Variables Internet Addiction of Adolescents

“…As Internet addiction increases, academic procrastination also increases. This result supports the research results in the literature (Custer, 2016: 48;Demir & Kutlu, 2017;Kandemir, 2014;Kindt, Szász-Janocha, Rehbein, & Lindenberg, 2019;Wretschko, 2006). Similar to the findings of this research, there are positively significant relationships between students' facebook attitudes, internet usage history and daily internet usage time (Akdemir, 2013), social media addiction (Gürültü, 2016), and academic procrastination tendencies.…”

Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy–Based Intervention in Preventing Gaming Disorder and Unspecified Internet Use Disorder in Adolescents

“…Previous research has shown that procrastination is closely related to gaming disorder and unspecified internet use disorder. 65 , 68 , 69 The specificity of the intervention’s effects on gaming disorder, unspecified internet use disorder, and procrastination symptoms vs other comorbid symptoms might be explained by the content of the PROTECT intervention manual, which specifically addresses 3 problem behaviors: (1) boredom and motivational problems, (2) procrastination and test anxiety, and (3) social anxiety. Although procrastination was decreased significantly, the effects of the interaction between time and group on social anxiety as well as on school and performance anxiety were marginally significant, which is a promising result and a step in the right direction.…”

The Effect of Internet Addiction in Students on Quality of School Life

“…[16] Gaming disorder in younger age groups, communication, and social media use in older people are other risk factors for IUD. [9,14,16,17] Internet addiction prevalence ranges from 5.9% to 18.3% among university students. [18] This prevalence was found to be 11.6% in a study on high school students.…”

“…[20,21] All these factors lead to psychosocial problems, poor cognitive performance, and low academic achievement in children and adolescents, as well as school burnout. [9,[26][27][28][29] Apart from the IUD, low socio-economic status and exposure to violence in various environments (such as at home, school, or peer communities) increase students' risk of school failure. Individual efforts of teachers are often insufficient to prevent this failure.…”

“…However, there is not enough evidence to show the relationship between internet use disorder (IUD) and factors such as school-related academic achievement, learning, absenteeism, and social functionality to date. [9] Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of internet addiction of primary, middle, and high school students on the quality of school life.…”