Sociopsychiatric characteristics of adolescents who use computers to excess.
OBJECTIVE
This study attempted to investigate current computer use by Korean adolescents, consequences of its excessive use and its relationship to psychiatric symptoms.


METHODS
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).


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Those adolescents with excessive computer use were found to show serious sociopsychiatric problems.
Yang
C K
CK
Department of Psychiatry, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors