Individualwriteup

Individual Write Up
Kaya Wechsler
4/17/17
Research Question: What psychosocial effects does internet addiction have on adolescents mental
health, functioning, and pre-existing mental disorders?
1.) Getting to this topic was an interesting journey, with a long process of narrowing down
my areas of interest. I knew that I wanted to investigate the role of technology, and more
specifically, the internet, in the onset of social and mental disorders. While conducting this
research, I came across the concept of internet addiction. I had known that people could be really
invested in the internet, but I did not know that an addiction to the internet was truly classifiable.
I didnt know before starting my research that internet addiction actually made it into the DSM-5
as a disorder that needs further research, which is extremely exciting to me, since the DSM is
very important in the psychology world. Many of the research articles I have found are analyzing
the role that internet addiction has in the social, cognitive, and behavioral functioning of
adolescents; and also the prevalence of the addiction. Something new I have learned that I found
particularly interesting is that there is a negative correlation between internet addiction and self-
esteem, meaning that those who reported symptoms of high internet addiction also reported low
levels of self esteem. This data makes me wonder which variable has more of an impact on the
other; perhaps those with low self esteem seek connections on the internet, or those who are
addicted to the internet face external problems with low self esteem due to their addiction and
social retraction. I also learned of the Chen Internet Addiction Scale, which is a classifiable way
to test a persons addiction to the internet. Additionally, I realize now that not much research has
been done on this topic, and almost every research article I read about internet addiction has a
call to action at the end, asking for further research into this phenomenon.
2.) In order to further my research on this topic, I must distribute the survey that I created in order to
gather data on perceived levels of internet use, self esteem, depression, and happiness. I think that it will
be interesting and beneficial to my topic of research if I gather data from my immediate surroundings to
see if it matches with pre existing data and findings. I will mostly be drawing from one research article in
particular, Prevalence and Risk Factors of Internet Addiction in High School Students, since it gives a
good idea of the variables that I will need to measure in my survey in order to test the correlation between
risk factors of internet addiction and levels of internet use. I also want to narrow my research, mostly
more into the role internet use has in psychiatric disorders, but also how internet addiction stands alone as
its own disorder. I would like to find out more about the history of the disorder, and the direct causes or
risk factors associated with it. I would also like to find out more about the rate of comorbidity between
internet addiction and psychological disorders, especially in adolescent populations. To further my
research, I will look at journal articles that have cited the ones that I have already read, in order to find out
more.
3.)
The relationship between addictive use of social media and video games and symptoms of
psychiatric disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional study.
http://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2016-13379-006&site=ehost-live
This is a very interesting study that yields many useful facts relating to the prevalence of
internet addiction and its correlation to pre existing mental disorders. The study aimed to
determine if symptoms of ADHD, OCD, anxiety, or depression could explain any type of
variance in addictive use of the internet. The study looks at two realms of the internet; video
games and social media. The study found that there are positive correlations between the
symptoms of these mental disorders and addictive internet use. It was also found that males
tended to be more addictive towards video games, while females had addictive behaviors geared
toward social media. This study supports the idea that mental health disorders and increased
internet use are related.
The development of compulsive internet use and mental health: A four-year study of adolescence.
This study discusses the concept of Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) (also called
problematic internet use and internet addiction disorder) and whether it is an antecedent to mental
health issues, a consequence of mental health issues, or both. This journal article outlines a
longitudinal study that was examining the effects of CIU on mental health among adolescents.
The study found that poor mental health was not a predictor of CIU development, but that CIU
predicted the development of poor mental health. This is very interesting, and supports the idea
that technology is taking a toll on our mental functioning and development. This study is directly
related to the one above in many ways, most importantly that they both find a significant
relationship between mental health issues and high levels of internet use, which is what I am
looking for.
4.)
The development of compulsive internet use and mental health: A four-year study of adolescence.
Prevalence and risk factors of Internet addiction in high school students.
Gender differences in internet addiction associated with psychological health indicators among
adolescents using a national web-based survey.
Suicide risk in college students: The effects of Internet addiction and drug use.
Internet addiction, self-esteem, and relational patterns in adolescents.

The relationship between recent stressful life events, personality traits, perceived family functioning and
Internet addiction among college students.
The relationship between addictive use of social media and video games and symptoms of psychiatric
disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional study.

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Individual Write Up

Prevalence and risk factors of Internet addiction in high school students.

Internet addiction, self-esteem, and relational patterns in adolescents.

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