A Study on Internet Addiction in Male and Female Teenagers and Their Association with Feelings of Depression and Thoughts of Suicide

This study aimed to identify the relationship between suicide as the greatest cause of death of youths and overuse of the internet, and it tried to discover the relationship between the risk level of internet addiction and types of internet addiction with feelings of depression and thoughts of suicide. The study analyzed data from 73,238 persons obtained through an on-line survey of youth health patterns in 2010 by applying the weighted value. Also the study verified the relationship between the level of internet addiction and type of internet addiction with feelings of depression and thoughts of suicide using a logistic regression analysis while controlling other factors. Compared with normal internet gamers, for the high risk group for internet game addiction according to gender, males were 1.35 times and 1.62 times higher concerning feelings of depression and the risk of thoughts of suicide respectively, while females were 1.69 times and 3.07 times higher respectively. In the potential risk group for game addiction, the risk of thoughts of suicide was 1.68 times higher in females, all of which were statistically significant at the p<0.05 level. In the high risk and potential risk groups for addiction except internet game addiction, both groups showed a statistically significant correlation both in males and females in terms of feelings of depression and thoughts of suicide. The study classified the sub-patterns of youth addiction except game addiction into information type (information search/pornography search), conversation type (messenger/chatting/email), relation type (blog/mini hompi/club/community), leisure type (music appreciation/movie appreciation/UCC use), and shopping/others. In the high risk group except game addiction, all the five types had a statistically significant correlation with thoughts of suicide in females, whereas there was no correlation with thoughts of suicide in males. In the potential risk group, the relation type and the leisure type had a significant correlation with thoughts of suicide in females, whereas they had no correlation in males (p<0.05). In looking at the correlation with feelings of depression, there was a statistically significant correlation with the conversation type both in males and females regardless of the risk level of addiction. For information type, there was a statistically significant correlation with feelings of depression in males of the potential risk group, whereas the relationship type had a statistically significant correlation in females of the potential risk group. Meanwhile, the leisure type had a statistically significant correlation with feelings of depression both in males and females of the potential risk group, whereas the shopping/others type had a statistically significant correlation in females of the high risk group (p<0.05). In summary, there was a difference in feelings of depression and thoughts of suicide according to the gender of youths and the level of internet addiction. Also, feelings of depression and thoughts of suicide appeared to show various differences between males and females according to the type of internet addiction. In particular, game addiction had a statistically significant correlation with thoughts of suicide in males, whereas all types of internet addiction had a statistically significant correlation with thoughts of suicide in females. These research results display the need for a guidance policy for internet use by youths in order to improve their mental health and prevent suicide. Accordingly, it is necessary to establish education for and promotion of correct internet use habits and solutions for internet addiction prevention. Also it is necessary to prepare differentiated approaches according to gender.

Author dc:creator

• 이, 정임

Contributors dc:contributor

• 전, 기홍
• 보건대학원
• 201130012

• 인터넷 중독 위험 정도
• 인터넷 중독 유형
• 우울감
• 자살생각
• risk level of internet addiction
• internet addiction type
• feelings of depression
• thoughts of suicide

Language dc:language

ko

Identifier

http://dcoll.ajou.ac.kr:9080/dcollection/jsp/common/DcLoOrgPer.jsp?sItemId=000000014363
000000014363

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.ajou.ac.kr:201003/8571