CLO 5

Section 1:

I used the search term Internet Addiction on HCT library page.

Section 2:

The first article was:

Internet addiction

Volume 22, issue 5, 2008, Pages 353-365

Martha Shaw

Donald W. Black

Abstract:

Internet addiction is characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviors regarding computer use and internet access that lead to impairment or distress. The condition has attracted increasing attention in the popular media and among researchers, and this attention has paralleled the growth in computer (and Internet) access. Prevalence estimates vary widely, although a recent random telephone survey of the general US population reported an estimate of 0.3-0.7%. The disorder occurs worldwide, but mainly in countries where computer access and technology are widespread. Clinical samples and a majority of relevant surveys report a male preponderance. Onset is reported to occur in the late 20s or early 30s age group, and there is often a lag of a decade or more from initial to problematic computer usage. Internet addiction has been associated with dimensionally measured depression and indicators of social isolation. Psychiatric co-morbidity is common, particularly mood, anxiety, impulse control and substance use disorders. Aetiology is unknown, but probably involves psychological, neurobiological and cultural factors. There are no evidence-based treatments for internet addiction. Cognitive behavioural approaches may be helpful. There is no proven role for psychotropic medication. Marital and family therapy may help in selected cases, and online self-help books and tapes are available. Lastly, a self-imposed ban on computer use and Internet access may be necessary in some cases.

Keywords:

Internet addiction

Compulsive behavior

Pathological behavior

The second article was:

Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use.

Volume 36, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 277-283

Aviv Weinstein

Michel Lejoyeux

Abstract:

Background: Problematic Internet addiction or excessive Internet use is characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges, or behaviours regarding computer use and Internet access that lead to impairment or distress. Currently, there is no recognition of internet addiction within the spectrum of addictive disorders and, therefore, no corresponding diagnosis. It has, however, been proposed for inclusion in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM). Objective: To review the literature on Internet addiction over the topics of diagnosis, phenomenology, epidemiology, and treatment. Methods: Review of published literature between 2000–2009 in Medline and PubMed using the term “internet addiction. Results: Surveys in the United States and Europe have indicated prevalence rate between 1.5% and 8.2%, although the diagnostic criteria and assessment questionnaires used for diagnosis vary between countries. Cross-sectional studies on samples of patients report high comorbidity of Internet addiction with psychiatric disorders, especially affective disorders (including depression), anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Several factors are predictive of problematic Internet use, including personality traits, parenting and familial factors, alcohol use, and social anxiety. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: Although Internet-addicted individuals have difficulty suppressing their excessive online behaviours in real life, little is known about the patho-physiological and cognitive mechanisms responsible for Internet addiction. Due to the lack of methodologically adequate research, it is currently impossible to recommend any evidence-based treatment of Internet addiction.

Keywords:

Behavioural addiction

Excessive internet use

Internet addiction

The third article was:

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2013, Pages 959-966

138352 ||

Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors

Daria J. Kuss

Mark D. Griffiths

Jens F. Binder

Abstract:

The last decade has witnessed a large increase in research on the newly emerging mental health problem of Internet addiction. Rather than looking at Internet addiction per se, this study focused on particular activities on the Internet that might be potentially addictive and linked them to personality traits that might predispose individuals to Internet addiction. The aims of this study were (i) to assess the prevalence of clinically significant levels of Internet addiction, and to (ii) discern the interplay between personality traits and specific Internet uses in increasing the risk for Internet addiction. This cross-sectional online survey used data from 2257 students of an English university. Results indicated that 3.2% of the students were classified as being addicted to the Internet. The included personality traits and uses of online activities explained 21.5% of the variance in Internet addiction. A combination of online shopping and neuroticism decreased the risk for Internet addiction, whereas a combination of online gaming and openness to experience increased it. In addition to this, frequent usage of online shopping and social online activities, high neuroticism and low agreeableness significantly increased the chances of being addicted to the Internet. Findings and their implications are discussed.

Keywords:

Internet Addiction

Personality

Online activity

Risk

Section 3:

First article

Internet addiction

The participants of this survey were randomly selected adults, from Iowa City in the state of Iowa in the USA in 2008. The research approach was quantitative because the article only offers the percentages of people addicted and not the severity of their addiction. There were 2513 randomly selected adults and the survey was conducted by phone.

Results:

Of the participant 69% used the internet regularly and out of those people 5.9% felt that their relationships suffered as a result of excessively using the internet, 3.7% of the people using the internet regularly were preoccupied by the internet even when offline, 13.7% found it hard to stay away from the internet, 8.2% use the internet as a mean to escape from their problems, 12.3%tried to cut back on using the internet and 12.4% use the internet longer than they intended.

Second article

Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use

This article looks onto several surveys conducted between the year 2000 and 2009 from several countries like the USA, Germany, Britain, China and Korea. The researches were quantitative because they only show the percentages which suffer from internet addiction, in the USA the survey was conducted online with 17251 participants while the rest have an unknown number of participants and method of conducting the survey.

 Results:

In the USA 6% of the participants met the criteria of internet addiction, in Germany 3% of the population suffers internet addiction, in Britain using the pathological internet use scale on British students 18.3% were considered pathological internet users, in China among the responders aged 13 to 18, 10.2%used the internet moderately while 6% were severely addicted and in Korea a study among middle school students found out that 16% were potential at risk users and 3.1% were high risk users.

Third article

Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors

 

The study presented in the article was done using a cross-sectional online data gathering technique which was comprised of 2257 students from an English university in the east midlands ages from 18 to 65 years old.  The approach of this article was both quantitative and qualitative, because it gave us the percentage of people addicted and the quality of the risk factors that leads to addiction, gaming and the use of internet application that allow social functions would be considered a high risk factor

Results:

Out of the 2257 participants 3.2% were classified as internet addicts based on their overall internet use, the number of problems they experienced and their Assessment for Computer and Internet Addiction-Screener test scores.

 

 

Section 4:

In my opinion I would rank the third article as the most significant, the second as the least significant and the first article would be in the middle.

The reason why I found this article to be the most significant is that it looked at previous articles worldwide on the same topic and recorded their findings and then conducted its own survey focusing on a single group of people which are students instead of different groups and then classified them into their age groups, field and level of study and used the Assessment for Computer and Internet Addiction-Screener test to target the frequency of specific internet usage domains such as online gaming, social network applications usage and some other high risk factors and based on those it asked the participant about the negative effects of such internet usage. Those findings are important because most articles on the same subject would focus on how long a person uses the internet daily, instead of how frequently the participant uses the internet for a specific purpose, and categorize those purposes depending on their risk factor quality. This article findings may not work will with professional practice or public policy because it only tested a specific group which are student so the way the research was administered and the rankings for risk factors quality may need to be adjusted to work with different groups of people.

What I would like to know more is how well this study will work if the participants were students from different colleges around the world and how those risk factors will change and how their quality will change depending on the country the study take place in.