The purpose of this study is to understand the amount of the effect of the individual factors which were verified to affect the adolescents' internet addiction, and explore the process of how each factor result in internet addiction. To fulfill the pu...
The purpose of this study is to understand the amount of the effect of the individual factors which were verified to affect the adolescents' internet addiction, and explore the process of how each factor result in internet addiction. To fulfill the purpose, this study collected and adjusted data through the meta analysis which unifies existing studies, and the in-depth interview which is one of the qualitative study method. The objects of the meta analysis were total 98 studies, 25 journal papers, and 73 thesis for degree. This is the result of selecting the studies that indicates the statistics, enabling the meta analysis, among the total of 221 studies that verified the factor of the adolescents' internet addiction from January 2000 to July 2008. The subjects of the in-depth interview were chosen among the adolescents who were diagnosed to be in the high-risk group or potential-risk group of internet addiction, by receiving recommendations from the school teachers or the person in charge of related facilities. The in-depth interviews were conducted on the 10th grade adolescents between October 2008 and December 2008 at the high schools. The results of this study is as follow.First, the meta analysis result showed that, the factors which has negative effect on internet addiction were in the sequence of 'family>school>friend>personal'. In case of the positive factors, the sequence was 'internet>personal>friend>family>school'. Both the amount of the negative effect and positive effect turned out to have a middle-level effect. For the sub-variable of the family factor, 'openness of communication with parents', 'positive parenting', 'family conflict' and others were derived. For the sub-variable of the school factor, 'learning motive', 'satisfaction in school life', 'support from teachers' and others were derived. For the sub-variable of the friend factor, 'pressure from peers', 'attachment to friends' and others were derived. For the sub-variable of the personal factor, 'delinquency experience', 'difficulty interpersonal relationships', 'self-command' and others were derived. For the internet related factor, 'motive of usage', 'usage form', 'expectation on the internet' and others were derived.Second, analysing the data from the in-depth interviews with the open-coding method, which is one of the grounded theory method, 72 concepts were drawn out in total, and these were arranged into 26 sub-categories and 11 categories. The 11 categories were 'lack of positive communication within the family', 'negative parenting', 'lack of learning motive', 'dissatisfaction in school life', 'lack of positive support from teachers', 'peer alignment', 'lack of interchange with friends', 'lack of sociality', 'lack of plan/hope', 'let to use internet', 'addictive usage of internet'. 3 of these were of the school factor, and 2 each were of the family, friend, personal, internet factor.Third, the results of the metal analysis and the in-depth interviews were explored together to verify the relationship between the adjusted factors of the meta analysis and the derived categories from the in-depth interviews. Within the family factor, 'openness of the communication with parents', 'positive communication within family', 'parents' interest', 'family relationship', 'marital conflict and domestic violence experience', and 'parents' supervision and control' were explained by the in-depth interviews. From the school factor, 'learning motive', 'class adaptation', 'satisfaction in school life', 'support from teachers' were, and from the friend factor, 'peer alignment', 'number of friends', 'friend relationship' were explained by the in-depth interviews. From the personal factor, 'self-command', 'sociality', 'delinquency experience', 'difficulty/sensitiveness in interpersonal relationship', and from the internet factor, 'usage form-game, hobby', 'expectation on the internet' were explained by the in-depth interviews.Forth, searching the process of resulting in internet addiction through each case of the in-depth interviews, 3 adolescents came to internet addiction because of the family factor, and one each because of the friend, school, personal factor. The reason of the remaining 3 adolescents were not able to be understood based on the in-depth interview results only. The common feature which appeared in the 6 cases was that, on the adolescent's internet usage, the control of the parents was weak and the conversation with the parents within the family was insufficient.From the result, this study suggests the intervention on the adolescents' internet addiction based on the family, school, friend, and the personal factors of the adolescents.