Prevalence of Problematic Internet Use in a Clinical Sample of University Students.
While the internet possesses great capacity to facilitate education, communication, information gathering, and the pragmatics of everyday life, it may become detrimental for some who use it excessively. With increased penetration of internet users via smartphone, the potential misuse of the internet...
| Publicado en: | Professional Psychology: Research & Practice Vol. 56; no. 6; pp. 470 - 477 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Psychological Association
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189859941&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189859941 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07357028 PYC jtl: Professional Psychology: Research & Practice issn: 07357028 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 56 iid: 6 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 189859941 10.1037/pro0000645 ppf: 470 ppct: 7 formats: tig: atl: Prevalence of Problematic Internet Use in a Clinical Sample of University Students. aug: au: Rotunda, Rob J. Knapp, Ekaterina Wolfe, Eileen Kennedy, Rebecca affil: Department of Psychology, University of West Florida Student Health and Wellbeing, University of Alabama at Birmingham su: Internet addiction Social media Self-evaluation Psychological distress Psychologists Help-seeking behavior Pornography College students Counseling Video games Smartphones Statistical sampling Gambling sug: subj: Internet addiction Social media Self-evaluation Psychological distress Psychologists Help-seeking behavior Pornography College students Counseling Video games Other Individual and Family Services Other Gambling Industries Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling Video game design and development services Video game publishers Doll, Toy, and Game Manufacturing Home entertainment equipment merchant wholesalers Smartphones Statistical sampling Gambling keyword: clinical sample of university students internet addiction problematic internet use clinical sample of university students internet addiction problematic internet use ab: While the internet possesses great capacity to facilitate education, communication, information gathering, and the pragmatics of everyday life, it may become detrimental for some who use it excessively. With increased penetration of internet users via smartphone, the potential misuse of the internet and social media platforms has become a prominent global concern. However, there is a lack of consensus for conceptualizing and assessing technology-driven problems such as "internet addiction" or "problematic internet use," which results in widely varying prevalence rates of these issues in convenience samples of nontreatment-seeking adults, college students, and adolescents. The present study is novel in that it examines self-report archival data from a treatment-seeking sample of university students at a university-based counseling center. A review of 2,280 consecutive assessment forms obtained before the first intake interview revealed that 147 clients (6.45%) indicated some type of problematic internet or computer use, with preoccupation with surfing the internet and pornography viewing as the leading concerns. Nine percent of this subsample indicated an internet-related concern as one of their main reasons for seeking clinic assistance. Although a relatively low percentage of students expressed primary distress involving the internet or gaming, an implication of these results is that systematic assessment of these concerns should become ubiquitous in clinical settings, especially clinics that assist emerging adults attending institutions of higher education. Public Significance Statement: This study provides some perspective on self-reported distress regarding internet use among treatment-seeking college students, finding that problematic internet use was reported by just over 6% of our sample of 2,280 students. Preoccupation with surfing the internet and pornography viewing were the leading concerns. A primary implication of these results is that more routine and systematic assessment for these problems is necessary for practicing psychologists and therapists in collegiate settings. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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