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Internet addiction in the island of Hippocrates: the associations between internet abuse and adolescent off‐line behaviours
Author(s) -
Fisoun Virginia,
Floros Georgios,
Geroukalis Dimitrios,
Ioannidi Nikoleta,
Farkonas Nikiforos,
Sergentani Elena,
Angelopoulos Nikiforos,
Siomos Konstantinos
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00605.x
Subject(s) - addiction , the internet , psychology , population , internet users , test (biology) , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , environmental health , world wide web , computer science , biology , paleontology
Background: To investigate the phenomenon of internet addiction and concurrent social (off‐line) behaviours of an adolescent population a cross‐sectional survey of the entire adolescent student population (N = 1270, aged 14–18) of the island of Kos in Greece was conducted. Method: Completion by the survey participants of a demographic questionnaire, the 8‐question YDQ (Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction) and the 20‐question IAT (Internet Addiction Test), followed by comparative analysis between and within usage groups. Results: Results demonstrate that 7.2% of male and 5.1% of female internet users present addictive behaviours while using the internet. Conclusions: Anti‐social, aggressive behaviours were significantly correlated with an increase to the pattern of abusive internet use in both sexes. Boys and girls had distinct profiles of off‐line and online preferences. Boys tended to favour interest‐driven online activities as their levels of addictive behaviour increased while girls favoured communication‐driven online activities.