Family Functioning And Internet Addiction Of Middle School Students

As use of the Internet spreads to a broader population, it is becoming the most important medium to interact with society and other people. It help us to do many things conveniently on line, but if we do not use it correctly, it can bring us all kinds of problems. One of these problems is Internet Addiction which has attracted increasing attention and become the hot issue in the field of psychology. Middle school students are in a crucial stage of their development. The plentiful information and all kinds of functions of the Internet are very attractive to the young person, especially some entertainments functions such as games and chatting online are more extractive to them, and some of them can't resist to the lure of these functions. Because middle school students are yet independent of their family, they are greatly influenced by their families.The research investigated the following issues: 1. The current status of Internet Addiction of the middle school students getting addicted to the Internet;2. The relationship between the Internet Addiction and family functioning of middle school students;3.The difference between the family functioning of the addicted and not-addicted middle school students;4. The characteristics of the family functioning of the middle school students who are addicted to internet.In order to look into the relation between the family functioning and Internet Addiction, the researchers conducted the present study. The 781 participants came from five middle schools in Shijiazhuang City and Baoding City of Hebei Province. The instruments used in this research include the IAT (Internet Addiction Test) and the modified FAD.The results of the study show:1. 12.7% participants meet the criteria for Internet addiction.2. The male students are more likely addicted to Internet than females.3. The longer one had access to the Internet, and the more times one has gone to the Internet Cafe, the more likely one will be addicted to the Internet.4. Relations between Internet addiction and family functioning of middle school students are significant.5. There are significant differences between the family functioning of the Internet addicts and non-addict in the factors of Communication, Roles, Affective Responsiveness, Affective Involvement Behavior Control, and the whole functioning, the family functioning of non-Internet -addicted students is rated high than addicted ones.6. The frequency of go online, the time of access to the Internet, affective reaction and age are indicators of Internet Addiction.