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The Effect of U.S. University Students' Problematic Internet Use on Family Relationships: A Mixed-Methods Investigation
Open accessAbstract
This is the first study to investigate how college students in the U.S. with problematic Internet use perceive the role the Internet plays within their families of origin. The sample included 27 U.S. university students who self-identified as excessive Internet users. Participants reported spending more than 25 hours a week on the Internet on non-school or non-work-related activities and reported Internet-associated health and/or psychosocial problems. This study provides descriptive statistics from participants' completion of two problematic Internet use measures (i.e., Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale) and reports findings from four focus groups. Three themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) family connectedness, (2) family conflict/family disconnection, and (3) family Internet overuse. The findings of this study are a first step toward the design of effective interventions for problematic Internet use among U.S. college students and serve to inform clinical practice and health policy in this area.
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“those with internet addictions in all its forms engage in fewer social activities, spend less time with family and friends, and experience less family closeness”
From Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction (2021) · cites this paper as Snyder, Li, O ' Brien, and Howard (2015)
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Cites
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Cited by
Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction
Bhargava, V. R., & Velasquez, M. (2021) · Business Ethics Quarterly · doi:10.1017/beq.2020.32 · Cited by 292
College students' cell phone use and attachment to parents and peers
Lepp, A., Li, J., & Barkley, J. E. (2016) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.021 · Cited by 77
Metadata
- Authors
- Snyder, S. M., Li, W., O’Brien, J. E., & Howard, M. O.
- Affiliations
- Georgia State University (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Howard, Matthew O.
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2015-12-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e0144005
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4676703
- OpenAlex
- W2190141664
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 6.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Archive @ GSU (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UNC Libraries
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Keywords
- problematic internet use, compulsive internet use, university students, family relationships, family connectedness, family conflict, excessive internet use, Compulsive Internet Use Scale, psychosocial problems
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Family Relations, Female, Humans, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, United States, Universities, Behavior, Addictive, Focus Groups, Internet, Young Adult
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- Snyder, S. M., Li, W., O’Brien, J. E., & Howard, M. O. (2015). The Effect of U.S. University Students' Problematic Internet Use on Family Relationships: A Mixed-Methods Investigation. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144005
