The Relations Between Undergraduate's Internet Addiction And Peer Support And Self-worth

Internet addiction, a type of behavior addictions, means that the behavior in surfing theInternet is too exciting to be controlled. The behavior has no relation with addiction objects,and will lead to considerable damages to individual in social and psychological functions. Thestudy by Armstrong, Phillips, Sailing, Brody, Zhu Mei Hui and so on shows that people whoare in lone, self-respect(self-worth) are more strongly addicted to surfing the Internet. Davisthinks that society isolation and being short of support from society lead to "generalpathological internet use". The study by Harter and others stale clearly that peer support haseffects on self-worth. Besides the study by Liu Man Man shows that importance ratings ofperceived peer support is positively related to self-worth. The study by Li Hui shows thatthere are obvious differences in the variables of high-low marks groups of adolescents'self-respect. My study tried to combine peer support, self-worth and Internet addiction toexplore the relationship among them. The purposes of this study were to looks into the factorsaffecting the undergraduates' IAD, prove and extend Hater theory model on self-worth, andput forward some proper features about the undergraduates' IAD.The study explored the relation among the undergraduates peer support, self-worth andthe Internet by answer-sheet investigating. It included four parts: Part one it inquires intosome cases to the undergraduates who are addicted to the Internet and any differences in thesecases between the feature of population study and the action in Internet using. Part two itinquires into some cases to the undergraduates peer support and global self-worth anydifferences in these cases between the feature of population study and the action in Internetusing. Part three inquire into the relation between peer support, global self-worth and theInternet for the undergraduates. Part four it inquires the effects which peer support and globalself-worth have on the Internet addiction by simultaneous multiple regression.The major findings were as follows:1. In the state of the undergraduates' IAD, there are obvious differences in thevariables of sexes, one-only child, the time in surfing the Internet at a time andfunctions selecting. The tendency of the Internet addiction of the boy students isstronger than that of the girl students, and the tendency of one-only child is strongerthan that of the non-one-only child. The tendency of the Internet addiction of theundergraduates who surf the Internet over fours hours at a time is stronger than that ofthose who surf the Internet one hour, one to two hours, two to three hours at a time.The tendency of the Internet addiction of the undergraduates who select game functions is stronger than that of the undergraduates who look up some materials,chatting and others.2.In the state of the undergraduates peer support, there are obvious main effectin the variables of marks, the time in surfing the Internet at a time and functionsselecting, there are obvious interaction effect ingrates and the time in surfing theInternet at a time, marks and functions selecting. In the state of the undergraduates'global self-worth, there are obvious main effects in the variables of marks.3.An importance rating of perceived peer support is positively related toself-worth. An importance rating of perceived self-worth is negative related to theundergraduates Internet addiction. An importance rating of perceived peer support isnegative related to the undergraduates Internet addiction.4.The undergraduates peer support and global self-worth had a significantlynegative effect on the Internet addiction, and the effect of peer support on the Internetaddiction was parlially through global self-worth.