Abstract
The present study investigated the prevalence and demographic correlates of Internet addiction in Hong Kong adolescents as well as the change in related behavior at two time points over a one-year interval. Two waves of data were collected from a large sample of students (Wave 1: 3,328 students, age = 12.59 ± 0.74 years; Wave 2: 3,580 students, age = 13.50 ± 0.75 years) at 28 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Comparable to findings at Wave 1 (26.4%), 26.7% of the participants met the criterion of Internet addiction at Wave 2 as measured by Young's 10-item Internet Addiction Test. The behavioral pattern of Internet addiction was basically stable over time. While the predictive effects of demographic variables including age, gender, family economic status, and immigration status were not significant, Internet addictive behaviors at Wave 1 significantly predicted similar behaviors at Wave 2. Students who met the criterion of Internet addiction at Wave 1 were 7.55 times more likely than other students to be classified as Internet addicts at Wave 2. These results suggest that early detection and intervention for Internet addiction should be carried out.
Highlights
The use of the Internet has brought a variety of convenience to our modern life
As there are few related studies on Internet addiction in Hong Kong, the present study investigated the occurrence and demographic correlates of Internet addiction among a group of Hong Kong adolescents and examined the stability of the phenomenon by comparing the prevalence findings between two time points with a one-year interval
The present paper only focused on the descriptive profile of Internet addictive behavior and its demographic correlates as well as the change of behavior over time
Summary
The use of the Internet has brought a variety of convenience to our modern life. negative impact is created by addictive behaviors to the Internet pervasively on one’s academic and working performance, family life, social relationships, physical health, and psychological wellbeing [1,2,3]. Most of the existing studies utilized cross-sectional designs and cannot provide a complete understanding of how Internet addiction developed over time These problems point to the urgent need to conduct methodologically sound research on youth Internet addiction, in Chinese contexts, where few validated measures exist [17]. The studies are severely limited by their cross-sectional design, which collected data only one time and/or examined stability of Internet addiction through retrospective recall technique Such an approach could only provide a snapshot of Internet addiction. The second purpose was to examine the stability of Internet addiction over time by comparing the occurrence rates of different types of Internet addictive behaviors in the same sample of students at the two time points (Wave 1 and Wave 2). The predictive effect of Internet addiction at Wave 1 on participants’ behaviors at Wave 2 was evaluated after controlling for other demographic variables
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