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Abstract
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Internet addiction is a serious problem for children as it is associated with various psychological and behavioral issues. This behavioral addiction has been discussed in relation to self-regulation, and lower self-regulation was associated with the development of internet addiction. Self-regulation develops throughout childhood to early adulthood. Thus, the condition of internet addiction might vary during development. However, variations in internet addiction have not been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to clarify how the condition varies among children and adolescents.
We used data collected from 1,620 elementary and junior high school students, grades 4th to 9th, who were defined as having maladaptive and pathological internet use based on the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ), in the 2022 survey. In analyses, latent class analysis (LCA) was used to examine the patterns of YDQ scores among elementary and junior high school students to compare these patterns.
The LCA results suggested that a YDQ score pattern divided into five classes was optimal for both elementary and junior high school students. Still, the score distribution variations in each class differed between school groups. In the class to which the largest number of elementary students belonged (41.7%), Y2 (need more time to use the internet) and Y5 (spent longer than intended on the internet) had high scores, while the other items had medium-low scores. Whereas in the class to which the largest number of junior high school students belonged (36.5%), Y1 (preoccupied with the internet), Y5 (longer than intended), and Y8 (using the internet to avoid dysphoric mood) items of YDQ. Note that all students in this group scored high on Y8. These heterogeneous conditions of internet addiction across developmental stages could provide suggestions for better interventions for children’s internet addiction.
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