Knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy regarding internet addiction among female students

Abstract

Use of the internet has regarded as an advantageous breakthrough which sometimes has led to over usage so-called "internet addiction". Increased prevalence of internet addiction among students and the necessity of acquiring information to design interventions have compelled us to design the present study on knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy of students regarding the Internet addiction. This study was two-stage cluster sampling consisted of 160 girl participants who were residing in selected dormitories of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire including demographic, knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy questions regarding the Internet addiction and. 49 participants (30.6 %) were at risk of the Internet addiction. Majority of the students were on the average national levels of knowledge (48.1%), attitude (49.1%), and self-efficacy (61.2%). We also found a statistically significant association between mean score of attitude with educational degree (p<0.003), and between the average daily hours of the Internet use with user type (p<0.001). Given the importance of knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy on the adaptation of healthy behaviors, the findings of this study revealed that extra educational interventions aiming to increase knowledge, improve attitudes and self-efficacy regarding internet use has a paramount importance.