Internet addiction among adults: A cross-sectional study
Abstract
Introduction: Human beings generally feel stressed at some point in life. Internet addiction disorder is increasingly gaining attention as individuals use the internet excessively as a maladaptive way to cope with daily life stress. Objective: The paper aims to find out the level of internet addiction with respect to gender, age groups, and family type, to determine the difference (if any) between males and females with respect to internet addiction, the difference (if any) in internet addiction with respect to age groups, and the difference (if any) between nuclear and joint family types with respect to internet addiction. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 140 participants (71 male and 69 female) from Kolkata, West Bengal. Findings: It shows a statistically significant difference in internet addiction mean scores between males and females. It also indicates that participants under 25 years of age have higher mean scores than those over 25 years. The next part reveals that individuals in nuclear families have higher mean scores than those in joint families, regardless of gender and age group, and finally indicates a statistically significant interaction effect of age group with gender and family type. Conclusion: Gender significantly affects internet addiction mean scores, with females under 25 in nuclear families being more addicted than their counterparts.
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