Survey on Internet addiction disorder of college students in three universities of Shanxi province

Yong XU; Kerang ZHANG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Adolescent Intemet addition disorder(IAD) gradually appears with the rapid popularization of Internet in China. National researches are rare at present.

OBJECTIVE:

To analyze the status quo of Internet use and on-line behavior characters of college students and to provide scientific data for the prevention of adolescent IAD.

DESIGN:

A status quo survey by employing college students as subjects

SETTING:

Department of psychiatrics of a medical university-affiliated hospital

PARTICIPANTS:

Totally 510 college students were selected from three different type universities of Shanxi province including Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan University of Technology, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics between November 2003 and February 2004.

METHODS:

Totally 510 college students from three universities of Shanxi Province were assessed by IAD test and self-compiled questionnaire for on-line college students.and non-IAD students.

RESULTS:

The detectable rate of IAD in college students of Shanxi province was 6.2%. More male students( n =29) had IAD than female students ( n = 3 ). Weekly on-line time of IAD students was (18.59 ± 16. 12)hours, which was significantly longer than (5.61 ± 5.64) hours of non-IAD student( P ＜ 0. 001 ) . There were significant differences of monthly on-line expenses, usual on-line place, opinions of whether intemet had negative impacts, understanding of their parents on internet functions they used, and the objective of on-line between IAD students and non-IAD students(P＜0.05 -0. 001 ), while there were no significant differences of on-line history and the utilization of internet function between two groups of students ( P ＞ 0. 05).

CONCLUSION:

The detectable rate of IAD in college students is relatively high and there is significant difference of on-line behavior characters between IAD students and non-IAD students, which should arouse attentions from the related department to prevent the occurrence of IAD.