Internet addiction among adults: A cross-sectional study

Reshmi  Dutta; Rita  Karmakar

doi:10.59400/apr.v3i1.1365

Internet addiction among adults: A cross-sectional study

Reshmi Dutta Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University Kolkata, Kolkata 700135, India
Rita Karmakar Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University Kolkata, Kolkata 700135, India

Article ID: 1365

1251 Views, 1240 PDF Downloads

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59400/apr.v3i1.1365

Keywords: comparative analysis; cross-sectional study; internet addiction; purposive sampling

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.

References

[1]Al Shawi, A. F., Hameed, A. K., Shalal, A. I., et al. (2022). Internet Addiction and Its Relationship to Gender, Depression and Anxiety Among Medical Students in Anbar Governorate-West of Iraq. Community Health Equity Research & Policy, 42(3), 253–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272684x20985708

[2]Anderson, E. L., Steen, E., & Stavropoulos, V. (2017). Internet use and Problematic Internet Use: a systematic review of longitudinal research trends in adolescence and emergent adulthood. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22(4), 430–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2016.1227716

[3]Augner, C., & Hacker, G. W. (2012). Associations between problematic mobile phone use and psychological parameters in young adults. International Journal of Public Health, 57(2), 437–441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-011-0234-z

[4]Černja, I., Vejmelka, L., & Rajter, M. (2019). Internet addiction test: Croatian preliminary study. BMC Psychiatry, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2366-2

[5]Chou, H.-T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). “They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am”: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others’ Lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(2), 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2011.0324

[6]Chou, C. (2001). Internet heavy use and addiction among Taiwanese college students: an online interview study. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 4(5), 573-585.

[7]Dowling, N. A., & Quirk, K. L. (2009). Screening for Internet dependence: do the proposed diagnostic criteria differentiate normal from dependent Internet use? Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 12(1), 21-27.

[8]Frangos, C. C., & Kiohos, A. (2013). Gender differences in Internet addiction and problematic Internet use: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(5), 1902–1908.

[9]Goel, D., Subramanyam, A., & Kamath, R. (2013). A study on the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with psychopathology in Indian adolescents. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(2), 140. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.111451

[10]Goswami, V., & Singh, D. R. (2016). Internet addiction among adolescents: A review of the research. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 3(3), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.25215/0303.194

[11]Haroon, Z., Zeb, Z., Javed, Z., et al. (2019). Internet addiction in medical students. Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, 30(4-Sup).

[12]Horita, H., Seki, Y., & Shimizu, E. (2022). Parents’ Perspectives on their Relationship with Their Adolescent Children with Internet Addiction: Survey Study. JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, 5(4), e35466. https://doi.org/10.2196/35466

[13]Karmakar, T., & Karmakar, M. (2017). A comparative study on internet use by rural and urban college students. International Journal of Advanced Research, 5(3), 1125–1132. https://doi.org/10.21474/ijar01/3615

[14]Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction—a review of the psychological literature. Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8(9), 3528–3552. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8093528

[15]Mohammadkhani, P., Alkasir, E., Pourshahbaz, A., et al. (2017). Internet addiction in high school students and its relationship with the symptoms of mental disorders. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal, 15(2), 141–148. https://doi.org/10.18869/nrip.irj.15.2.141

[16]Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2008). Internet Addiction. CNS Drugs, 22(5), 353–365. https://doi.org/10.2165/00023210-200822050-00001

[17]Turel, O., Poppa, N. T., & Gil-Or, O. (2018). Neuroticism magnifies the detrimental association between social media addiction symptoms and wellbeing in women, but not in men: a three-way moderation model. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89, 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-018-9563-x

Published

2024-06-12

How to Cite

Dutta, R., & Karmakar, R. (2024). Internet addiction among adults: A cross-sectional study. Applied Psychology Research, 3(1), 1365. https://doi.org/10.59400/apr.v3i1.1365

Download Citation

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2024)

Section

Article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Editor-in-Chief

Prof. Giuseppe Lanza

Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Italy

eISSN

3029-276X

Publication Frequency

Semi-annual

About the Publisher

Academic Publishing insists on taking academic exchange and publication as the main line, carrying out comprehensive management based on science and technology, and fully exploring excellent international publishing resources. Within 5 years, it will form a strategic framework and scale with science (S), technology (T), medicine (M), education (E), and humanities and arts (H) as the main publishing fields. Academic Publishing is headquartered in Singapore and based in Malaysia, with the United States and China providing the main scientific and academic resources. At the same time, it has established long-term good cooperative relations with other publishing companies, scientific research communities, and academic organizations in more than a dozen countries and regions. Academic Publishing uses English and Chinese as its main publishing languages, mainly publishing books, journals, and conference papers in print and online. The vast majority of publications follow the international open access policy, providing stable and long-term quality and professional publications. With the joint efforts of the expert team and our professional editorial team, our publications will gradually be indexed by international databases in stages to provide convenient and professional retrieval for various scholars. At the same time, manuscripts we accept will be subject to the peer review principle, and cutting-edge and innovative research articles will be preferentially accepted for peer reference and discussion. All kinds of our publications are welcome for peer to contribute, access, and download.

more

Volume Arrangement

2024

2023

2022

Featured Articles

A comprehensive review (1963–2024) of environmental psychology: Trends, themes, and future directions

Multidisciplinary environmental psychology studies the dynamic link between humans and their natural and manmade settings. This thorough study synthesises 443 works from 1963 to 2024 on topics such as physical surroundings’ effects on behaviour, environmental stressors, pro-environmental behaviour, and applying psychological theories to environmental interactions. This literature is synthesised to identify patterns, themes, and future directions. Growing environmental concerns and the need for sustainable development have changed the profession. Green areas have been demonstrated to boost mental health and reduce stress. Nature helps mental exhaustion recuperation. Hospitals and workplaces’ design and structure affect health and productivity. Walkable, green urban development improves citizens’ well-being and promotes sustainable living. Environmental stresses including noise, pollution, and overpopulation harm mental and physical health. Children exposed to noise pollution are more likely to develop cardiovascular illness and cognitive deficits. Anxiety and despair caused by climate change are also becoming more apparent. Pro-environmental behaviour is emphasised, with notions like planned behaviour and community-based social marketing working. Behaviour interventions using social norms and feedback have decreased energy and waste. Personal values-driven intrinsic motivation promotes long-term behavioural change better than extrinsic incentive. Environmental psychology uses surveys, experiments, and mixed-methods research. Virtual and augmented reality provide for environmental simulations and psychological studies. Good health and well-being, excellent education, sustainable cities, responsible consumerism, climate action, and living on land are among the field’s major contributions to the UNSDGs. Environmental psychology will help establish sustainable and healthy settings that correspond with the UNSDGs as environmental issues grow.

The impact of the menstrual cycle on emotions and behavior—A review of current research

The menstrual cycle has attracted the interest of many researchers for many years. It is analyzed from many angles, including its impact on mental health. Hormonal changes over the course of the cycle have a very strong impact on the emotions, needs, or pain experienced. Estrogen, secreted shortly before ovulation, influences increased confidence and feelings of attractiveness, which can lead to new relationships. In contrast, progesterone, secreted during the luteal phase, promotes the strengthening of stable relationships, and a large proportion of women may experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) during this time. This publication discusses studies from recent years that have assessed the variability of women’s needs and emerging symptoms during different phases of the cycle. It also summarizes any strategies and practical tips needed to work with women considering their cyclical variability.

Testing social impact and self-attention predictions with live audiences and co-actors

This experiment examined the influences of number of co-actors and audience size on manual dexterity task performance and subjective reactions such as perceived effort and arousal. Predictions derived from social impact theory and the self-attention perspective’s other-total ratio indicated that both number of co-actors and audience size should influence responses. Undergraduate students (N = 128) responded as 1, 2, 4, or 8 group members who were observed in counterbalanced fashion by 1, 2, 4, or 8 audience members for four performance trials. The predictions of increased task performance with larger audience sizes and decreased performance as number of co-actors increased were not supported. Participants’ rated arousal was somewhat consistent with the predictions from the self-attention perspective and social impact theory. Self-reported effort was consistent with the predicted patterns, but not always significantly so. The influence of number of others is moderated by the objective-subjective nature of responses of real co-actors performing in front of live audiences.

Manifesting the academic psychological contract

The level of research undertaken on the academic psychological contract, and its influence on academics’ behaviour is limited. This paper seeks to consider the academic psychological contract, by reviewing its manifestation within the role and the influence on their undertaking of the role. Particularly important is academics’ interpretation of the role and what they consider important. Within this, the paper considers in-role and extra-role activities and what may be the grey areas in which time is spent. The research adopts the combined usage of phenomenology with interpretivist processes to investigate the insights of eighteen academics at nine UK University Business Schools. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data to consider the constructs’ manifestation. Key aspects of behaviour were identified as discretionary effort autonomy and managerialism, with links to academic citizenship.