Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug 21:14:1248378.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1248378. eCollection 2023.

Socio-demographic and mental health correlates of internet addiction amongst Hong Kong university students under COVID-19

Daniel T L Shek  1 , Wenyu Chai  1 , Diya Dou  1 , Lindan Tan  1 , Tingyin Wong  1 , Kaiji Zhou  1
Affiliations

Socio-demographic and mental health correlates of internet addiction amongst Hong Kong university students under COVID-19

Daniel T L Shek et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Regarding the problem of Internet addiction (IA) amongst university students under the pandemic, there are several research gaps. Firstly, few studies have examined IA of university students in Hong Kong, which is a Chinese society heavily influenced by Western values. In addition, findings on the socio-demographic correlates and psychological well-being predictors of IA in university students are unclear. Finally, researchers have not systematically examined the interaction effects of socio-demographic factors (particularly gender and personal infection of COVID-19) and psychological morbidity on IA. This pioneer study aimed to investigate the predictive role of socio-demographic factors and psychological morbidity in IA, and the moderating effects of gender and personal infection of COVID-19 on the relationship between psychological morbidity and IA.

Methods: We conducted an online survey (N = 1,020 university students) during the ending phase of Wave 5 of the pandemic in Hong Kong (late 2022 to early 2023). Socio-demographic correlates included age, gender, living status, personal and family financial situation, student status, personal and family infection of COVID-19. Participants responded to validated measures of psychological morbidity, including depression, suicidal behavior, and hopelessness. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analyses were used to examine the predictive role of socio-demographic variables and psychological morbidity in IA and the interactive effect of gender and personal infection of COVID-19 with psychological morbidity on IA.

Results: Personal financial difficulty was a significant socio-demographic predictor of IA. Depression, suicidal behavior, and hopelessness positively predicted IA. We also found a significant interaction effect of gender and psychological morbidity on IA. While the predictive relationship between depression and IA was stronger in males than in females, hopelessness was more strongly related to IA in females than in males. Finally, there was a significant interaction effect of personal infection of COVID-19 and suicidal behavior on IA.

Conclusion: Personal financial difficulty was a socio-economic correlate of IA. Psychological morbidity also predicted IA. Gender and personal infection of COVID-19 moderated the linkage between psychological morbidity and IA. The findings of the study enhance our understanding of individual differences in IA in university students during the pandemic, particularly concerning different ecological risk factors.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Hong Kong; internet addiction; psychological morbidity; socio-demographic correlates; university students.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interaction between symptoms of major depressive disorder (CESDR) and gender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction between hopelessness and gender.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interaction between suicidal behavior and personal infection of virus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abela J. R. Z., Seligman M. E. P. (2000). The hopelessness theory of depression: a test of the diathesis-stress component in the interpersonal and achievement domains. Cogn. Ther. Res. 24, 361–378. doi: 10.1023/A:1005571518032 - DOI
    1. Achab S., Nicolier M., Mauny F., Monnin J., Trojak B., Vandel P., et al. . (2011). Massively multiplayer online role-playing games: comparing characteristics of addict vs non-addict online recruited gamers in a French adult population. BMC Psychiatry 11:144. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-11-144, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adams-Prassl A., Boneva T., Golin M., Rauh C. (2020). Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: evidence from real time surveys. J. Public Econ. 189:104245. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104245 - DOI
    1. Ahmadi K. (2014). Internet addiction among Iranian adolescents: a nationwide study. Acta Med. Iran. 52, 467–472. - PubMed
    1. Ahorsu D. K., Pramukti I., Strong C., Wang H.-W., Griffiths M. D., Lin C.-Y., et al. . (2021). COVID-19-related variables and its association with anxiety and suicidal ideation: differences between international and local university students in Taiwan. Psychol. Res. Behav. 14, 1857–1866. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S333226, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources