Reiner Iris, Tibubos Ana N, Hardt Jochen, Müller Kai, Wölfling Klaus, Beutel Manfred E
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Oct;26(10):1257-1268. doi: 10.1007/s00787-017-0984-0. Epub 2017 Apr 4.
Problematic internet use may lead to serious psychosocial dysfunction. Recent studies have found comparable prevalence in both male and female adolescents. We pursue the neglected questions how male and female adolescents differ regarding their patterns of internet use and how gender, peer attachment and patterns of use are related to pathological internet use. In 2410 adolescents (1307 girls and 1103 boys) aged 12-18 years from different types of school we assessed peer attachment, frequency and use of eight specific applications and indicators of pathological internet use. Three patterns of internet use, 'social'; 'sex and games" and 'functional' were identified and connections between variables were modeled by ordered sequences of regression. We found that problematic internet use-sex and games as well as social usage-was more prevalent in boys. Insecure peer attachment predicted problematic internet use in both sexes. Also, excessive usage of internet games and sex mediated the influence of peer attachment insecurity on problematic internet use, but only for boys. Our study identified that adolescents with insecure peer attachment are at higher risk for problematic internet use. With regard to specific types of internet use, the consumption of online games and sex was identified as risk factor in boys with increasing age. Further studies are needed to understand and possibly subgroup problematic internet use behavior in girls. Our findings suggest that increasing the quality of peer relationships may be promising approach in the prevention and treatment of problematic internet use.
问题性互联网使用可能导致严重的心理社会功能障碍。最近的研究发现，男性和女性青少年中的患病率相当。我们探讨了一些被忽视的问题，即男性和女性青少年在互联网使用模式上有何不同，以及性别、同伴依恋和使用模式与病理性互联网使用之间的关系。在来自不同类型学校的2410名12至18岁的青少年（1307名女孩和1103名男孩）中，我们评估了同伴依恋、八种特定应用程序的使用频率和使用情况以及病理性互联网使用的指标。识别出三种互联网使用模式，即“社交”、“性与游戏”和“功能型”，并通过有序回归序列对变量之间的联系进行建模。我们发现，问题性互联网使用——性与游戏以及社交使用——在男孩中更为普遍。不安全的同伴依恋预示着两性都会出现问题性互联网使用。此外，网络游戏和性内容的过度使用介导了同伴依恋不安全感对问题性互联网使用的影响，但仅适用于男孩。我们的研究表明，同伴依恋不安全的青少年出现问题性互联网使用的风险更高。就特定类型的互联网使用而言，网络游戏和性内容的消费被确定为年龄增长的男孩的风险因素。需要进一步的研究来了解并可能对女孩的问题性互联网使用行为进行细分。我们的研究结果表明，提高同伴关系的质量可能是预防和治疗问题性互联网使用的一种有前景的方法。
