Exploring depression, self-esteem and verbal fluency with different degrees of internet addiction among Chinese college students.
The aims of this study were to explore depression, self-esteem and verbal fluency functions among normal internet users, mild internet addictions and severe internet addictions.



The survey sample consisted of 316 college students, and their internet addiction symptoms, depression and self-esteem symptoms were assessed using the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), respectively. From this sample, 16 students with non-addictions, 19 students with mild internet addiction (sub-MIA) and 15 students with severe internet addiction (sub-SIA) were recruited and subjected to the classical verbal fluency tests, including the semantic and phonemic fluency task.



The results indicated that severe internet addiction in the survey sample showed the highest tendency towards depressive symptoms and lowest self-esteem scores, and sub-SIA showed poor performance on the semantic fluency task.



In conclusion, severe internet addiction was significantly associated with depression, low self-esteem and semantic verbal fluency problems.
School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Hubei, China; Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China.
Jia
J
Nie
School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Hubei, China; Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China. Electronic address: psyzhwccnu@126.com.
Wei
W
Zhang
East Zhuyuan Primary School, Zhongshan, Guangdong, China.
Ying
Y
Liu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D055815:Young Adult