[Use and abuse of the Internet in university students]. / Uso y abuso de Internet en jovenes universitarios.

AIM: To adapt a questionnaire for assessing the use and abuse of Internet, as well as the relationship between this resource and psychosocial profile in a group of university students. METHOD: 391 students filled out the questionnaires; 26.1% were men and 73.9% were women, with a mean age of 19.59 years (DT = +/- 2.83; Range: 18-47 years). We used a sociodemographic questionnaire, Social skills questionnaire (Caballo, 1993, EMES-C and EMES-M), Personality questionnaire (E.P.I., Eysenck and Eysenck, 1982), and an Internet and Use and Abuse of Internet questionnaire (adapted from Bruner, 1997, Suler, 1996 and Young, 1996a, Garcia del Castillo y Terol, 2007). RESULTS: 73.91 % of students connect for an average of 84.81 minutes (DT = +/- 2.05) per week. Except for one subscale of the Internet use and abuse questionnaire, all the subscales showed reliability coefficients > or = . 70 and mean scores lower than the average of the score range. Internet use and abuse showed a relationship with psychosocial variables such as cognitive social skills (r =.14; p =.016) and neuroticism (r =.-13, p =.01).

Uso y abuso de Internet en jóvenes universitarios / Use and abuse of the Internet in university students

El objetivo del trabajo es describir el uso y/o abuso de Internet con un cuestionario adaptado de Brenner, (1997); Suler, (1996) y Young, (1996), así como, la relación entre frecuencia de uso y determinadas variables psicosociales de jóvenes universitarios. Método: Participaron 391 estudiantes, 26,1% son hombres y el 73,9% son mujeres de media de edad de 19.59 años (DT=±2.83; Rango: 18-47 años) Utilizamos un cuestionario de variables sociodemográficas, el Cuestionario de Expresión Social (Caballo, E.V., 1993, EMES-C y EMES-M), Cuestionario de personalidad (E.P.I. Eysenck y Eysenck, 1982), y un Cuestionario de Internet y de Uso y Abuso de Internet (adaptado de Bruner, 1997, Suler, 1996 y Young, 1996a, Garcia del Castillo y Terol, 2007). Resultados: Un 73,91% de la muestra se conecta semanalmente con un tiempo medio de 84.81 minutos (DT=±42.05). Excepto en una de las subescalas del cuestionario de uso y abuso de Internet, todas muestran coeficientes de fiabilidad ≥70, y puntuaciones medias inferiores a la media del rango. El uso y abuso de Internet se relacionó con el componente cognitivo de las habilidades sociales (r=.14; p=.016) y el neuroticismo (r=.-13, p=.01)

Aim: To adapt a questionnaire for assessing the use and abuse of Internet, as well as the relationship between this resource and psychosocial profile in a group of university students. Method: 391 students filled out the questionnaires; 26.1% were men and 73.9% were women, with a mean age of 19.59 years (DT = ± 2.83; Range: 18-47 years). We used a sociodemographic questionnaire, Social skills questionnaire (Caballo, 1993, EMES-C and EMES-M), Personality questionnaire (E.P.I., Eysenck and Eysenck, 1982), and an Internet and Use and Abuse of Internet questionnaire (adapted from Bruner, 1997, Suler, 1996 and Young, 1996a, Garcia del Castillo y Terol, 2007). Results: 73.91 % of students connect for an average of 84.81 minutes (DT = ± 2.05) per week. Except for one subscale of the Internet use and abuse questionnaire, all the subscales showed reliability coefficients ≥ 70 and mean scores lower than the average of the score range. Internet use and abuse showed a relationship with psychosocial variables such as cognitive social skills (r =.14; p =.016) and neuroticism (r =.-13, p =.01)