Evolution of Internet addiction in Greek adolescent students over a two-year period: the impact of parental bonding.

We present results from a cross-sectional study of the entire adolescent student population aged 12-18 of the island of Kos and their parents, on Internet abuse, parental bonding and parental online security practices. We also compared the level of over involvement with personal computers of the adolescents to the respective estimates of their parents. Our results indicate that Internet addiction is increased in this population where no preventive attempts were made to combat the phenomenon from the initial survey, 2 years ago. This increase is parallel to an increase in Internet availability. The best predictor variables for Internet and computer addiction were parental bonding variables and not parental security practices. Parents tend to underestimate the level of computer involvement when compared to their own children estimates. Parental safety measures on Internet browsing have only a small preventive role and cannot protect adolescents from Internet addiction. The three online activities most associated with Internet addiction were watching online pornography, online gambling and online gaming.

Internet addiction in the island of Hippocrates: the associations between internet abuse and adolescent off-line behaviours.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the phenomenon of internet addiction and concurrent social (off-line) behaviours of an adolescent population a cross-sectional survey of the entire adolescent student population (N = 1270, aged 14-18) of the island of Kos in Greece was conducted. METHOD: Completion by the survey participants of a demographic questionnaire, the 8-question YDQ (Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction) and the 20-question IAT (Internet Addiction Test), followed by comparative analysis between and within usage groups. RESULTS: Results demonstrate that 7.2% of male and 5.1% of female internet users present addictive behaviours while using the internet. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-social, aggressive behaviours were significantly correlated with an increase to the pattern of abusive internet use in both sexes. Boys and girls had distinct profiles of off-line and online preferences. Boys tended to favour interest-driven online activities as their levels of addictive behaviour increased while girls favoured communication-driven online activities.