Investigation on Internet addiction disorder in adolescents in Anhui, People’s Republic of China (2016)

Introduction

With the development of science and network technology, searching for information and contacting by email has become more convenient for us. But when this network came to be overused, a phenomenon called “Internet addiction (IA)” occurred.1 Globally, users of Internet have already crossed the 3 billion mark.2 People’s Republic of China has 256 million adolescent Internet users as of January 2014, accounting for 71.8% of the overall number of adolescents.3

Internet addiction disorder (IAD), now more commonly called problematic Internet use, compulsive Internet use, Internet overuse, problematic computer use, and pathological computer use, was first proposed by the American psychiatrist Goldberg; it is a phenomenon caused by excessive use of the network and leads to social psychological damages. The American psychologists Beard and Wolf,4 also proposed that IAD refers to the factor of this phenomenon is the network itself, such as network communication and some low-quality content online.5

Some researchers found that IAD is associated with personality,6–8 self-esteem,9,10 social support,9 suicide ideation, disordered eating attitudes,11 defense styles,12 depressive symptoms,3 physiological.6 Although official diagnostic criteria do not exist, IA can be defined as the excessive, obsessive–compulsive, uncontrollable, use of Internet, which also causes significant distress and impairments in daily functioning.13 It is imperative to recognize the antecedents of IA.14

About 25% of users fulfill IA criteria within the first 6 months of using the Internet. Many individuals initially feel intimidated by the computer, and gradually feel a sense of “competency and exhilaration from mastering the technology and learning to navigate the applications quickly by visual stimulation”. The feeling of exhilaration can be explained by the way IAD sufferers often describe themselves as: bold, outgoing, open-minded, intellectually prideful, and assertive.4 The prevalence rates of IA in Hong Kong adolescents ranged from 17% to 26.8% during the high school years.15

Researchers have tried to find out the determinants or risk factors associated with IA. Male,16 stage of education, daily time spent on using Internet, most frequent time of Internet use, monthly cost of use, and tea consumption17 were some of the factors found to be associated with IA.

This study aims to investigate the status of the use of Internet of university students in Anhui province, so as to offer useful information for prevention and intervention in the treatment of adolescent IAD.

Methods

Results

In our results, the overall detection rate of IAD and non-IAD in students was 8.7% (459/5,249) and 76.2% (4,000/5,249). Table 1 shows the main characteristics of students included. Table 2 reveals that the detection rate of IAD in males (12.3%) was higher than that of females (4.9%), and the detection rate of IAD was statistically different between students from rural (8.2%) and urban (9.3%) areas, among students from different grades, between students from only-child family (9.5%) and non-only-child family (8.1%), and among students from different family types.

 

Table 1

Main characteristics of young adolescents included in this study

 

Table 2

The detection rate of IAD in young adolescents using different variables (%)

Discussion

The development of Internet has made a great effect on our work, study, and life, as well as created a series of social problems. Recently, research found that the prevalence of IA is 6.0% among adolescent Internet users.20 We also obtained similar results in our study, where the overall detection rate of IAD was 8.7%. Additionally, the detection rate of IA in male students was higher than female students, the possible reason being maybe that personality and behavior are different between males and females. This difference between the two sexes may also explain that males are more involved in online activities, such as gaming, pornography, and gambling, which can lead to pathological Internet use. In this study, the incidence of IA for students from the rural and urban areas was significantly different, which may be explained by the fact that adolescents from rural areas have less opportunity to access Internet.

The results also showed that the detection rate of teen IA among different grades was significantly different. The IA rate increased with grade. The possible reason may be that higher grade students are more comfortable with surfing the Internet and faced less constraints from their parents.

Our survey showed that IA rate of only-child students is higher than that of non-only-child students. The Chinese Communist Party government has been forcefully promoting its one-child policy for 3 decades. One-child policy in the city performed better than rural areas, thus the only-child proportion in the city is much higher than in rural areas. In recent years, computer and Internet ownership has dramatically increased in cities, which promotes Internet use for students.

This study also suggests that the incidence of students IA is different among different family types. In addition, students living with their fathers have a higher incidence of IA, which could be caused by lack of mothers’ education and care.

Conclusion

Prevalence of IA is high among Chinese adolescents. IAD has more effect on male students, single-child families, single-parent families, and higher grade students. More care must be taken of male students, only-child students, and students living with their fathers, and related education should be strengthened for susceptible subjects of IAD.

Acknowledgments

Footnotes

References