Internet addiction among professional courses students: A study from central India

Abstract

Background: Rapid expansion and proliferation of the internet has provided better opportunities for communication, information and social interaction. The excessive undisciplined use by individuals has led to the emergence of the concept of internet addiction. Psychological and environmental factors in the lives of college students may leave them disproportionately vulnerable to Internet addiction. Aims & Objective: Present study was conducted with objectives to determine the level of Internet addiction and behavioural aspects among students of professional courses. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out on the professional course students, 15 to 25 years of age group in Jabalpur city of Madhya Pradesh, India. A total of 400 students using internet for at least since last 6 months were selected by simple random sampling. Young's Internet addiction scale, consisting of 20-item, based upon five-point Likert scale was used and subjects were classified into normal users (score <20), mild (score 20-49), moderate (score 50-79) and severe (score >79) internet addiction. Results: A total of 391 out of 400 questionnaire forms were analyzed. Of the 391 students 55% were male. Mean age of students was 19.02(±1.450) years. Males were more addicted to the internet than female. The mean time spent on internet was 1.29(±1.251) hours per day. The internet addiction test scoring revealed that 57.3% as normal users, 35.0% as case of mild, 7.4% as moderate and 0.3% as severely addicted to Internet. Conclusion: Internet addiction is growing problem among students of professional courses, so it is necessary to develop strategies for prevention of internet addiction as well as therapeutic interventions, which is vital for promoting healthy and safe use of the Internet.