Study On Internet Addiction And Its Influencing Factors Among Adolescent Inpatients With Mood Disorder

BACKGROUND:Internet addiction is common among adolescents.The frequency of Internet addiction is significant among adolescents in contrast with other age groups,which is frequently co-morbid with mood disorders.In the past five years,researches on this topic have remained insufficient;so,there is a need to explore Internet usage of adolescent psychiatric patients.OBJECTIVE:focusing on adolescent inpatients with mood disorder,this study aimed at the description of the Internet addiction prevalence,and the identification of its associated factors.METHOD:This study was based on interviews,where a series of psychological scales were used to assess variables related to "Internet addiction".All 110 interviewees are adolescent inpatients with mood disorder aged between 12 and 17.Basic demographic information,diagnosis and medication information would be collected before the respondents were invited to complete several questionnaires investigating about their psychological characteristics.The main scales are the Video Game Addiction Scale and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale while other scales include the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire,the Individualism-Collectivism Scale,and the Olweus Bullying/Victimization Questionnaire.T-test and chi-square test were used to compare the distribution of variables between the two types of Internet addiction(video game addiction and social media addiction).At the same time,the relevant variables were included in the binary logistics analysis and path analysis to respectively explore the independent influencing factors and causal relationships associated with Internet addiction behaviors.RESULTS:The prevalence of Internet addiction was 60.9%,where the prevalence of video game addiction is 40.9%,the social media addiction is 43.6%.The study found that the variables below showed significant difference between the video game addicted and non-addicted groups:gender,living in school,and parenting style,the rate of homosexuality,total score of Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale,total score of UCLA Loneliness Scale,and individualism inclination.In the logistics regression analysis,there were four independent influence factors on "video game addiction":Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-physical-neglect score,total Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale score,and individualism inclination.The below variables significantly differed between the social media addiction and non-addiction groups:parents’ marital status,the diagnosis of depressive disorder,"discriminated"by teachers,total score of Adolescent Non-suicidal-self-injury Behavior Function Assessment Scale,total score of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire,and so on.In the path analysis,the score of "individualism minus collectivism" was directly correlated to the total score of the video Game Addiction Scale and total UCLA Loneliness Scale score,and indirectly link to the total score of Bergen social media scale.CONCLUSION:The prevalence of Internet addiction among adolescent mood disorder patients is high.In clinical practice,it is recommended that Internet addiction be divided into video game addiction and social media addiction,with the former receiving priority attention;in interviews with patients,Internet addiction is associated with more individualistic tendencies and previous childhood trauma and should be given attention.