Sociopsychiatric characteristics of adolescents who use computers to excess

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate current computer use by Korean adolescents, consequences of its excessive use and its relationship to psychiatric symptoms. Questions for computer use, Computer-Related Addictive Behavior Inventory (CRABI), computer-induced behavioral alterations and Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R) were assessed in 1296 students (12-19 years). Students were divided into three group users: minimal users (63.4%), moderate users (30.5%) and excessive users (6.1%). Computer-induced behavioral alterations occurred most frequently to excessive users and it was significantly correlated with total CRABI score. Average score on nine symptom dimensions and three global indexes of SCL-90-R were able to discriminate four decreasing orders of subjective psychiatric complaints: most frequent in excessive users and then moderate, non- and mild users, in order. Those adolescents with excessive computer use were found to show serious sociopsychiatric problems.