The risk factors of Internet addiction—A survey of university freshmen

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the risk factors of Internet addiction in 1360 freshmen of the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan in 2003. The test battery included a self-administrated structured questionnaire, the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale-Revision (CIAS-R), the 12-item Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ-12), the Measurement of Support Functions (MSF), and the neuroticism subscale of the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI). Of the total study population, there were 680 college freshmen (17.9%) in the Internet addiction group, as defined by high CIAS-R scores. Using logistic regression analyses, we found positive relationships between Internet addiction and male gender, neuroticism scores and the CHQ score. In addition, the freshmen who skipped breakfast and those who had poorer social support also had a higher probability of Internet addiction. Internet addiction is prevalent among university freshmen in Taiwan. Risk factors included male gender, habit of skipping breakfast, mental health morbidity, deficient social support; and neurotic personality characteristics.

Introduction

The Internet is fast becoming a basic feature of global civilization. Informative, convenient, and entertaining, the Internet has changed the ways people work and spend their leisure time. As of June 2007, 1.133 billion people used the Internet according to the Internet World Stats. However, uncontrolled Internet use may have negative impacts on social, occupational, academic, marital and interpersonal adjustment (Baruch, 2001, Parks, 2002, Engelberg and Sjöberg, 2004). Researchers have used various terms to describe individuals who exhibit addictive behaviors in their Internet use, including “computer dependency,” “online dependency,” “cyber addiction,” “pathological Internet use,” and “Internet addiction disorder” (Whang et al., 2003, Lee and Shin, 2004, Song et al., 2004). Addictive use of the Internet was reported by Young (1996), who found that most people with Internet addiction were young males with low sociality and low self-esteem. Scherer (1997) reported that persons who were over-involved with the Internet exhibited symptoms of Internet addiction and might have an increased risk of psychiatric morbidity. Chen et al. (2003) also reported that people with addictive behaviors were more likely to have health morbidity, socioeconomic problems and behavioral problems.

Certain personality traits should be considered when assessing potential mental problems. In a study involving a large sample, Breslau et al. (1991) reported that neuroticism was one of the significant independent predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Taiwanese studies, a positive correlation between a personality trait (namely, neuroticism) and psychiatric morbidity has also been reported (Chen et al., 2001, Yang et al., 2003). Therefore, we speculated that neuroticism is a possible risk factor for Internet addiction.

Young people are generally believed to constitute the majority of Internet users. An increasing number of studies have revealed that some youngsters are compulsive in their use of the Internet and exhibit addictive behaviors very similar to those related to alcoholism, substance addiction and pathological gambling (Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005, Ha et al., 2006, Petry, 2006). In Johansson and Götestam's (2004) study, 1.98% of Norwegian youth (aged 12–18) were described as having an “Internet addiction” according to the criteria of Young's (1998b) diagnostic questionnaire.

However, few studies have explored the correlation between lifestyle habits, mental health and Internet addiction in young people. Compared with other young people, college students may be more involved with the Internet (Kandell, 1998, Young, 2001). The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors associated with Internet addiction among university freshmen. We hypothesized that risk factors related to personality traits, lifestyle habits, interpersonal relationships and the potential of psychiatric morbidity might be elevated in those who are Internet addicted.