Original article
The Comorbid Psychiatric Symptoms of Internet Addiction: Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Depression, Social Phobia, and Hostility

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.02.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To: (1) determine the association between Internet addiction and depression, self-reported symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), social phobia, and hostility for adolescents; and (2) evaluate the sex differences of association between Internet addiction and the above-mentioned psychiatric symptoms among adolescents.

Methods

A total of 2114 students (1204 male and 910 female) were recruited for the study. Internet addiction, symptoms of ADHD, depression, social phobia, and hostility were evaluated by the self-report questionnaire.

Results

The results demonstrated that adolescents with Internet addiction had higher ADHD symptoms, depression, social phobia, and hostility. Higher ADHD symptoms, depression, and hostility are associated with Internet addiction in male adolescents, and only higher ADHD symptoms and depression are associated with Internet addiction in female students.

Conclusion

These results suggest that Internet addiction is associated with symptoms of ADHD and depressive disorders. However, hostility was associated with Internet addiction only in males. Effective evaluation of, and treatment for ADHD and depressive disorders are required for adolescents with Internet addiction. More attention should be paid to male adolescents with high hostility in intervention of Internet addiction.

Section snippets

Methods

Three of 33 senior high schools, and 7 of 20 vocational high schools in Kaoshiung City and County in Taiwan were selected for evaluation. The selected schools included five, three, and two schools from urban, suburban, and rural areas, respectively. Two classes were randomly selected from each grade in the 10 schools. A total of 2114 students (1204 male and 910 female) were recruited. The mean of their age was 16.26 years (SD = .99, range 15 to 23 years). All students in the selected classes

Result

Based on the scores of CIAS, 338 participants (17.9%) were classified into the Internet addiction group. Table 1 indicates that the adolescents with Internet addiction are more likely to be male, have higher educational grades, use the Internet more than 20 hours/week, and have online gaming habits in the main. Playing online games (42%) is the most frequent Internet activity of Internet addicts, followed by online chatting (30.3%), downloading (5.3%), e-mail (2.1%), and adult sex webs (.9%).

Discussion

The results of the study revealed that adolescents with Internet addiction had higher self-reported ADHD symptoms, which correlate with Internet addiction mostly in the regression model for both male and female students. This is the first report to demonstrate an association between ADHD symptoms and Internet addiction for adolescents. Because ADHD is a persistent and pervasive mental disorder with onset before age 7 years [20], the preexisting neuropsychological characteristics of ADHD could

Conclusion

The present research made clear that self-reported ADHD symptoms, depression, and hostility are associative factors of Internet addiction among adolescents. However, hostility was associated with Internet addiction for male but not for female students. Although the mechanism of the association was beyond the scope of this study, it appears reasonable to suggest that effective evaluation of, and treatment for ADHD and depressive disorder are required for adolescents with Internet addiction.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from Department of Health, Executive Yuan, ROC (DOH95-TD-M-113-039).

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