Internet addiction among young people in China: Internet connectedness, online gaming and academic performance decrement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interrelationships between internet connectedness, online gaming, internet addiction symptoms, and academic performance decrement among the internet-dependent young people in China. Design/methodology/approach – A paper-based survey was conducted among the young clients in one of the earliest and largest internet addiction clinics in China. A total of 594 in-patients (mean age=17.76 y) voluntarily participated in this study. Findings – By adopting the concept of internet connectedness, this study explored the internet use patterns among the young internet addicts, for example, internet cafe patrons and those who use internet with more goals or higher degree of internet adhesiveness had more internet addiction symptoms. Online gaming was found to play a significant role in the development of internet addiction. As expected, the level of internet addiction is significantly linked to academic performance decrement. Consistent with previous studies, ma...

[1]  Louis Leung,et al.  Effects of Individual Differences, Awareness-Knowledge, and Acceptance of Internet Addiction as a Health Risk on Willingness to Change Internet Habits , 2012 .

[2]  David Lester,et al.  Shyness, Internet Use, and Personality , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[3]  S. Ball-Rokeach.  A Theory of Media Power and a Theory of Media Use: Different Stories, Questions, and Ways of Thinking , 1998 .

[4]  Louis Leung,et al.  The influences of information literacy, internet addiction and parenting styles on internet risks , 2012, New Media Soc..

[5]  Terry Anderson,et al.  Facing life without the Internet , 1998, Internet Res..

[6]  R. L. Huang,et al.  Features and predictors of problematic internet use in Chinese college students , 2009, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[7]  Kimberly Young,et al.  Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[8]  K. Young.  Caught in the Net: How to Recognize the Signs of Internet Addiction--and a Winning Strategy for Recovery , 1998 .

[9]  M. Griffiths,et al.  ‘Internet Addiction’: A Critical Review , 2006, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

[10]  Yao-Chung Chuang,et al.  Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game-Induced Seizures: A Neglected Health Problem in Internet Addiction , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[11]  C. Anderson,et al.  The Effects of Reward and Punishment in Violent Video Games on Aggressive Affect, Cognition, and Behavior , 2005, Psychological science.

[12]  Wen-Bin Chiou,et al.  Why Are Adolescents Addicted to Online Gaming? An Interview Study in Taiwan , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[13]  K. Scherer.  College Life On-Line: Healthy and Unhealthy Internet Use. , 1997 .

[14]  Zaheer Hussain,et al.  The Attitudes, Feelings, and Experiences of Online Gamers: A Qualitative Analysis , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[15]  Elisheva F. Gross,et al.  The impact of computer use on children's and adolescents' development , 2001, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

[16]  Elisheva F. Gross,et al.  The impact of home computer use on children's activities and development. , 2000, The Future of children.

[17]  Leo Sang-Min Whang,et al.  Lifestyles of Virtual World Residents: Living in the On-Line Game "Lineage" , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[18]  J. Morahan-Martin,et al.  Incidence and correlates of pathological Internet use among college students ? ? Portions of this pa , 2000 .

[19]  Steven Furnell,et al.  Computer abuse: vandalizing the information society , 1997, Internet Res..

[20]  C. Mafé,et al.  Explaining Internet dependency: An exploratory study of future purchase intention of Spanish Internet users , 2006 .

[21]  Robert LaRose,et al.  Loneliness as the Cause and the Effect of Problematic Internet Use: The Relationship between Internet Use and Psychological Well-Being , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[22]  Sandy C. Li,et al.  The Relation of Internet Use to Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Chinese Adolescents , 2011, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[23]  Jack Linchuan Qiu,et al.  Internet Connectedness and Inequality , 2001, Commun. Res..

[24]  Tai-Kuei Yu,et al.  Taiwanese Adolescents' Intention Model of Visiting Internet Cafés , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[25]  Karen H. Frith,et al.  The Physical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Consequences of Internet Use in College Students , 2004, Computers, informatics, nursing : CIN.

[26]  Silu Chen,et al.  Factors Influencing Internet Addiction in a Sample of Freshmen University Students in China , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[27]  Louis Leung,et al.  Instant Messaging Addiction among Teenagers in China: Shyness, Alienation, and Academic Performance Decrement , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[28]  Chien Chou,et al.  Internet addiction, usage, gratification, and pleasure experience: the Taiwan college students' case , 2000, Comput. Educ..

[29]  Chien Chou,et al.  A Review of the Research on Internet Addiction , 2005 .

[30]  Lan-Ying Huang,et al.  Predicting online game loyalty based on need gratification and experiential motives , 2011, Internet Res..

[31]  Douglas N. Gordin,et al.  Changing how and what children learn in school with computer-based technologies. , 2000, The Future of children.

[32]  Yi-Chung Hsu,et al.  Are Internet Cafés Gendered Spaces? , 2008, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[33]  Christopher Murray,et al.  What Children Do on the Internet: Domains Visited and Their Relationship to Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Academic Performance , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[34]  S. Ball-Rokeach.  THE ORIGINS OF INDIVIDUAL MEDIA-SYSTEM DEPENDENCY , 1985 .

[35]  Tao Zhou,et al.  Understanding Online Community User Participation: A Social Influence Perspective , 2011, Internet Res..

[36]  Ronggong Song,et al.  An analysis of online gaming crime characteristics , 2005, Internet Res..

[37]  Laura E. Levine,et al.  Electronic Media Use, Reading, and Academic Distractibility in College Youth , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[38]  Joo-Young Jung,et al.  Exploring the Digital Divide , 2001, Commun. Res..

[39]  Louis Leung,et al.  Effects of Internet Connectedness and Information Literacy on Quality of Life , 2010 .

[40]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  Excessive Computer Game Playing: Evidence for Addiction and Aggression? , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[41]  John R. Barrows,et al.  Internet Use and Collegiate Academic Performance Decrements: Early Findings , 2001 .

[42]  Mikhail J. Atallah,et al.  Internet Addiction: Metasynthesis of 1996-2006 Quantitative Research , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[43]  Robert LaRose,et al.  Unregulated Internet Usage: Addiction, Habit, or Deficient Self-Regulation? , 2003 .

[44]  Hsi-Peng Lu,et al.  The role of Internet addiction in online game loyalty: an exploratory study , 2008, Internet Res..

[45]  Sergio L. Toral Marín,et al.  An empirical study of the driving forces behind online communities , 2009, Internet Res..

[46]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.