An assessment of internet addiction among pre-university students

Abstract

Online activities have become the norm in today's society; therefore, it is necessary to investigate addictive internet usage especially among students. In this study, a total of 75 students aged 18-19 years old were randomly selected among the pre-university students as the respondents. They were required to fill in questionnaires, which included the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and demographic information such as gender and parental monitoring. However, five questionnaires were excluded due to the missing values. Overall, the findings indicated rates of internet addiction at 52.86%, with severe addiction at 1.43%. While severe internet addiction is not common, moderate internet addiction seems to be, as it was reported at 51.43%. Additionally, internet addiction was higher among males compared to females (72% vs 42%). The three highest-ranked online activities were school work (100%), entertainment (100%) and social networking (97.14%). Overall, parental monitoring significantly impacted the rates of internet addiction. Hence, parental monitoring needs to be considered when designing and implementing interventions for internet addiction.