Correlates of Internet use and addiction in adolescents

The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between loneliness, social support, and Internet addiction among high school students. The secondary component of this study examined personality type, grade point average, and gender as they relate to Internet addiction among high school students. Two minor hypotheses examined the relationship between television and Internet use and relationship status. Internet was defined as character games, Usenet, chat rooms, instant messaging, World Wide Web, and e-mail. Data were gathered from a sample of high school students at a public suburban high school in Upstate New York. Subjects consisted of 202 students, representing ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade. Students completed five instruments and one open-ended question. The instruments used were the UCLA Loneliness Scale, On-line Cognition Scale (OCS), Social Support Appraisals Scale (SS-A), Introversion/Extraversion subscale of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and a demographic questionnaire. Pearson correlations were calculated to determine the relationships among loneliness, social support, and Internet Addiction. Results indicated that loneliness and social support correlated to Internet Addiction, which is consistent to what has been reported in national surveys. High school students, who experience high levels of loneliness and low levels of social support, may turn to the Internet to alleviate these feelings. Feelings of loneliness and lack of social support, may lead students to becoming addicted to the Internet. Personality type, grade point average, and gender on Internet Addiction were not correlated. In addition, the two minor hypotheses of romantic relationship on weekly television and Internet use, showed no correlation. This is an exploratory study and still raises many avenues regarding the cause and effect in terms of loneliness, social support, and Internet Addiction. The research on the impact of the Internet is just beginning to emerge but to this point has neglected the issues revolving around children and adolescents. It is crucial that the possible benefits of better, faster, and more available computers not blind society to the potential harms to young people inherent in their use.