A Study on the Relationship among the Internet Addiction, Self-esteem, Depression and Sensation Seeking Tendencies of High-school Students Almost all families are quipped with PCs. They have young students, who tend to be unable to control their impul...
A Study on the Relationship among the Internet Addiction, Self-esteem, Depression and Sensation Seeking Tendencies of High-school Students Almost all families are quipped with PCs. They have young students, who tend to be unable to control their impulses once they are immersed in the Internet. They can monopolize the cultural space of the Internet whose foundation appears weak.
Internet addiction is even called 'Cyber Age's Drug', bringing a number of pathological phenomena to the fore. But relevant domestic researches leave much to be desired.
In this context, this study is designed to grasp the actual condition of juvenile Internet addicts and their psychological features, and to come up with basic materials necessary for working out countermeasures. The researcher came up with the following research problems.
1. To what extent are juvenile Internet addicts addicted?
2. What relationship is there between juvenile Internet addiction and their self-esteem?
3. What relationship is there between juvenile Internet addiction and their depression ?
4. What relationship is there between juvenile Internet addiction and their sensation seeking tendencies?
The researcher worked with a total of 621 first and second graders attending 15 classes in girls' and boys' high schools located in the city of Kimpho, Province with the help ofi questionnaires, depending on such tools as Young's Internet Addiction Test, Self-esteem Scale, Beck's Depression Inventory(BDI), and Zuckerman's Stimulus-Seeking Scale(SSS).
The findings can be summarized as follows.
First, the survey shows that 64.6 percent of the Internet users have fnternet-related problems and should be careful in using the Internet, and that 53 subjects(8.5%) show symptoms of Internet addiction, and need to think twice about their status of using the Internet. 73.1 percent of the subjects are to consult with experts about the problems for the cause of preventing or curing Internet addiction.
Second, the more addicted the subjects are, the lower their self-esteem is. The subordinate areas of self-esteem have the same results as the level of Internet addiction and the extent of self-esteem.
Third, the more addicted the subjects are, the higher their level of depression becomes.
Fourth, the more addicted the subjects are, the highly likely the subjects are to seek sensation.
The findings of this study are cliff-icult to generalize for the number of the subjects is limited. Further studies should be made to determine the order of such factors as Internet addiction, self-esteem, depression and sensation seeking tendencies. It is hoped that his study will contribute to the formation of instruction such as group counseling to cure the juvenile addicts of Internet.