Department of Applied Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, PR China.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2011 Sep;14(9):497-503. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0167. Epub 2011 Feb 5.
Internet addiction among college students has become a serious problem in China. This pilot study involved the development of an online expert system named Healthy Online Self-helping Center (HOSC) as an intervention tool to help those who wish to reduce online usage. The study also explored the effectiveness of HOSC for college students' Internet addiction behavior. Participants (N = 65) were recruited from a university in Beijing, and were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: using HOSC within a laboratory environment, using HOSC within a natural environment, using a noninteractive program, and a control group. All the participants were asked to answer questionnaires at the baseline and at the 1-month follow-up. The questionnaires included the participants' online hours per week, the legitimate ratio of Internet usage, online satisfaction, and the Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire. The results revealed that HOSC under both natural and laboratory environments could effectively reduce the participants' online hours per week as well as their Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire score, and improve online satisfaction at a 1-month follow-up. Participants using a noninteractive program also had similar results. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study, as well as the implications of the findings and future research directions.
大学生网络成瘾问题在中国已成为一个严重的问题。本研究旨在开发一个名为“健康在线自助中心”（HOSC）的在线专家系统，作为一种干预工具，帮助那些希望减少上网时间的人。本研究还探讨了 HOSC 对大学生网络成瘾行为的有效性。参与者（N=65）来自北京的一所大学，他们被随机分配到以下四个条件之一：在实验室环境中使用 HOSC、在自然环境中使用 HOSC、使用非互动程序和对照组。所有参与者都被要求在基线和 1 个月的随访时回答问卷。问卷包括参与者每周的上网时间、互联网使用的合理比例、在线满意度和 Young 的诊断问卷。结果表明，在自然和实验室环境下使用 HOSC 都能有效减少参与者每周的上网时间和 Young 的诊断问卷得分，并在 1 个月的随访时提高在线满意度。使用非互动程序的参与者也有类似的结果。文章最后讨论了研究的局限性，以及研究结果和未来研究方向的意义。
