Canadian Psychiatric Association
Brief Communication
Gender Difference in Internet Use and Internet Problems among Quebec High School Students
Association des psychiatres du Canada
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry / La Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie 1-6 ª The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0706743716640755 TheCJP.ca | LaRCP.ca
Diffe´rence selon le sexe de l’utilisation et des proble`mes d’Internet chez des e´le`ves du secondaire du Que´bec
Magali Dufour, PhD1, Natacha Brunelle, PhD2, Joel Tremblay, PhD2, Danielle Leclerc, PhD2, Marie-Marthe Cousineau, PhD3, Yasser Khazaal, MD4, Andre´e-Anne Le´gare´, BA1, Michel Rousseau, PhD1, and Djamal Berbiche, PhD1
Abstract Objectives: There are presently no data available concerning Internet addiction (IA) problems among adolescents in Canada and the province of Quebec. The goal of this study is thus to document and compare the influence of gender on Internet use and addiction. Method: The study data were collected from a larger research project on gambling among adolescents. Activities conducted online (applications used and time spent) as well as answers to the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) were collected from 3938 adolescents from grades 9 to 11. The two most often employed cut-off points for the IAT in the literature were documented: (40-69 and 70þ) and (50þ). Results: Boys spent significantly more time on the Internet than did girls. A greater proportion of the girls made intense use of social networks, whereas a greater proportion of the boys made intense use of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, online games, and adult sites. The proportion of adolescents with a potential IA problem varied according to the cut-off employed. When the cut-off was set at 70þ, 1.3% of the adolescents were considered to have an IA, while 41.7% were seen to be at risk. At a 50þ cut-off, 18% of the adolescents were considered to have a problem. There was no significant difference between the genders concerning the proportion of adolescents considered to be at risk or presenting IA problems. Finally, analysis of the percentile ranks would seem to show that a cut-off of 50þ better describes the category of young people at risk. Conclusions: The results of this study make it possible to document Internet use and IA in a large number of Quebec adolescents. Abre´ge´ Objectifs : Il n’y a pre´sentement pas de donne´es disponibles au sujet des proble`mes de de´pendance a` Internet (DI) chez les adolescents du Canada et de la province de Que´bec. Cette e´tude visait donc a` documenter et a` comparer l’influence du sexe sur l’utilisation d’Internet et la de´pendance a` Internet.
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Service de toxicomanie, Universite´ de Sherbrooke (Longueuil Campus), Longueuil, Quebec Department of Psychoeduation, Universite´ du Que´bec a` Trois-Rivie`res, Trois-Rivie`res, Quebec School of Criminology, Universite´ de Montre´al, Montre´al, Quebec Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
Corresponding Author: Magali Dufour, PhD, Service de toxicomanie, Universite´ de Sherbrooke (Longueuil Campus), 150 Place Charles-Le Moyne, Suite 200, Longueuil, Quebec, J4 K 0A8, Canada. Email:
[email protected]
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The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
Me´thod : Les donne´es de l’e´tude provenaient d’un vaste projet de recherche sur le jeu de hasard chez les adolescents. Les activite´s mene´es en ligne (les applications utilise´es et le temps consacre´) ainsi que les re´ponses a` un test de de´pendance a` Internet (IAT) ont e´te´ obtenues de 3 938 adolescents, de la 9e a` la 11e anne´e. Les 2 seuils d’inclusion les plus souvent employe´s pour l’IAT dans la litte´rature ont e´te´ documente´s (40-69 et 70þ) et (50þ). Re´sultats : Les garc¸ons passaient significativement plus de temps que les filles sur Internet. Une plus grande proportion des filles faisait un usage intense des re´seaux sociaux, tandis qu’une plus grande proportion des garc¸ons faisait un usage intense des jeux de roˆle en ligne massivement multijoueur (MMORPG), d’autres jeux en ligne et de sites pour adultes. La proportion des adolescents pre´sentant un proble`me de DI potentiel variait selon le seuil d’inclusion employe´. Quand le seuil d’inclusion e´tait fixe´ a` 70þ, 1,3% des adolescents e´taient conside´re´s comme ayant une DI, alors que 41,7% e´taient juge´s a` risque. Au seuil d’inclusion de 50þ, 18% des adolescents e´taient conside´re´s comme ayant un proble`me. Il n’y avait pas de diffe´rences significatives entre les sexes a` l’e´gard de la proportion des adolescents estime´s eˆtre a` risque ou pre´senter des proble`mes de DI. Enfin, l’analyse des rangs-centiles semble indiquer qu’un seuil d’inclusion de 50þ de´crit mieux la cate´gorie des jeunes a` risque. Conclusions : Les re´sultats de cette e´tude documentent l’utilisation d’Internet et la DI chez un grand nombre d’adolescents que´be´cois. Keywords Internet addiction, Internet applications, adolescents, gender
Clinical Implications With the more severe cut-off point employed, between 1.16% and 1.45% adolescents have an Internet problem. It is therefore important that they have access to treatment. A significant proportion of adolescents are probably at risk of developing addiction problems. Careful thought must be given to prevention for these young people. This prevention should be addressed specifically according to gender. The percentile ranks seem to indicate that new cut-off points should be employed to determine at-risk categories. The score of 50 (instead of 40) seemed appropriate in this study.
Numerous studies also highlight the differences between genders in terms of both application utilization and the prevalence of IA problems.4,12,14 The prevalence of IA problems would seem to be higher in boys than in girls.4,12,14 There are presently no data available concerning IA problems among adolescents in the province of Quebec.19 These data are of interest considering that the cultural differences associated with young Quebecers may have an impact on Internet use.21,22 Furthermore, numerous health practitioners wonder whether preventive intervention is needed.2,23,24 The goal of the present study is to document Internet use and the proportion of Internet addiction according to gender.
Method Participants Limitations Despite a sizable number of participants, the use of a convenience sample limits the generalization of the results. The lack of a gold standard to which we could compare the IAT performance is a serious weak point in this field of research. The rapid development of software applications and the growing use of the Internet raise numerous questions about the repercussions of this technology in the life of adolescents.1,2 While most adolescents make reasonable use of the Internet, some lose control and their use becomes so excessive that it is often qualified as Internet addiction (IA).3,4 There is as of yet no consensus regarding the conceptualization or operationalization of IA.5-10 Despite these debates, several studies have reported IA prevalences oscillating between 0.6% and 26.7%.4,10-18 These sizable variations in the prevalences—depending on the studies, the countries, samples, and the evaluation criteria10,19,20—are of note.
The study data were collected in 2012 during a research project on gambling among adolescents.25 A convenience sampling method was employed for schools selection. Fourteen public and private secondary schools were approached, and 11 agreed to participate. Participants in grades 9, 10, and 11 were invited to complete the questionnaires individually in their classroom for a duration of 50 minutes.
Instruments For Internet activities, the time spent on 9 applications was documented: social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), YouTube, chatroom (MSN, Myspace, other than Facebook), blogs or discussion forums, news sites (Cyberpresse, Canoe), massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs (World of Warcraft, League of Legends), online games with other players (Call of Duty, Counter Strike), downloading music or films, and visiting adult sites (XXX). For each of the applications and excluding time spent for schoolwork, they had to evaluate how many hours they spent
La Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie
online using a 7-point Likert scale (1 ¼ 0 minutes, 2 ¼ less than an hour, 3 ¼ 5 hours, 4 ¼ 15 hours, 5 ¼ 20 hours, 6 ¼ 30 hours, 7 ¼ 40þ hours). Considering that more than 20 hours of Internet per week is high-intensity use,26 time spent online was put into 2 categories: high intensity (20 hours or more) and low intensity (19 hours or less). Internet addiction was measured with the French version27 of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT).28 This 20-item questionnaire was evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale and the scores varied from 20 to 100. The IAT scale was shown to have an internal consistency coefficient of 0.93. Although this scale has been employed in many studies,29 different cut-off points have been used to determine which people are at risk or addicted.4,10,27,30 Given the lack of sufficient consensus, we employed the 2 most common ways of categorizing the IAT scores: 1) by using the 3 categories recommended by Young3,13,28 (no risk [20-39], at risk [40-69] or probable Internet addict [70-100]) and 2) by using 2 categories27,31-33 (average users [20-49] or problematic users [50 or more]).
Data Analysis Pearson’s chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used to compare the 2 groups’ means and proportions. Percentile scores of the IAT results were calculated for each gender. Due to the sample size, the significance level at
