Association between urban upbringing and compulsive internet use in japan: A cross-sectional, multilevel study with retrospective recall

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to show the association between urban upbringing and compulsive internet use (CIU). The interview data of the sample (N = 2431) was obtained from the World Mental Health Japan Second Survey and a multilevel model was used to investigate the association. Multiple imputation was also conducted in this study. Growing up in a large city was significantly associated with higher Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) scores (γ = 1.65, Standard Error (SE) = 0.45) and Mild CIU + Severe CIU (Exp(γ) = 1.44; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) (1.04–2.00)) compared to growing up in a small municipality after adjusting for both sociodemographic characteristics and psychopathology. This study showed a possible association between urban upbringing and CIU. Future studies with longitudinal design are needed to better understand this association.