Association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i6.15505

Keywords:

Students; Internet; Suicidal ideation; Behavior.

Abstract

Objective: to investigate the evidence in the literature on the association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students. Method: an integrative review of publications on the CINAHL, EMBASE, LILACS, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycInfo, SciELO, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde databases was carried out, without restrictions regarding language or publication date. The final sample comprised 5 articles, which were organized and characterized according to author, year, method, sample, country, instruments and results. Results: the prevalence of internet addiction among university students ranged from 7.7% to 27.3%, and suicidal ideation from 7.4% to 36.1%. The results of simple logistic regression analyses showed a significant association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation, although on multiple logistic regression this association was not statistically significant for 2 out of the 5 studies reviewed. Subjects at risk of or with addiction to the internet had a significantly higher rate of suicidal ideation compared with controls. Conclusion: although the presence of association does not indicate causality, these findings serve as an early warning sign to parents, educators and health professionals, indicating the need for longitudinal studies to further elucidate this relationship. 

References

American College Health Association. (2018). American College Health Association - National College Health Assessment II: Reference Group Executive Summary Fall 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-II_FALL_2017_REFERENCE_GROUP_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY.pdf

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th. ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Arrivillaga, C., Rey, L. & Extremera, N. (2020). Adolescents’ problematic internet and smartphone use is related to suicide ideation: Does emotional intelligence make a difference?. Computers in Human Behavior, 110, 106375. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074756322030128X

Bai, Yu & Fan, Fu-mim. (2005). A study on the internet dependence of college students: The revising and applying of a measurement. Psychological Development and Education, 21(4), 99–104. Retrieved from: http://www.devpsy.com.cn/EN/abstract/abstract707.shtml#

Bisen, S. S. & Deshpande, Y. (2020). Deshpande Y. Prevalence, predictors, psychological correlates of internet addiction among college students in India: a comprehensive study. Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg, 21(2),117-123. Retrieved from: https://www.bibliomed.org/mnsfulltext/91/apd_47328.pdf?1612729969

Bousoño Serrano, M., Al-Halabí, S., Burón, P., Garrido, M., Díaz-Mesa, E., Galván, G., García-Álvarez, L., Carli, V., Hoven, C., Sarchiapone, M., Wasserman, D., Bousoño, M., García-Portilla, M., Iglesias, C., Sáiz, P., & Bobes, J. (2017). Uso y abuso de sustancias psicotrópicas e internet, psicopatología e ideación suicida en adolescentes. Adicciones, 29(2), 97-104. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20882/adicciones.811

Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. (2012). Methodological guidelines: preparation of systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Brasília. Retrieved: http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/diretrizes_metodologicas_elaboracao_sistematica.pdf

Canbaz, S. & Terzi, Ö. (2018). The Prevalence of Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents and Associated Risk Factors: an example from Turkey. Adv Ther, 35, 839–846. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-018-0720-2

Cao, H., Sun, Y., Wan, Y., Hao, J. & Tao, F. (2011) Problematic Internet use in Chinese adolescents and its relation to psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction. BMC Public Health, 11(1), 802. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-802

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Violence prevention: risk and protective factors. USA. CDC. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Suicide Mortality in the United States, 1999–2017. NCHS Data Brief n° 330. USA. CDC. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db330.htm

Chan, M., Li, T. M. H., Law, Y. W., Wong, P. W. C., Chau, M., Cheng, C., Fu, K., Bacon-Shone, J., Cheng, Q. & Yip, P. (2017). Engagement of vulnerable youths using internet platforms. PLoS One, 12(12), e0189023. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189023

Chen, Z., Poon, K. T. & Cheng, C. (2017). Deficits in recognizing disgust facial expressions and Internet addiction: perceived stress as a mediator. Psychiatry Research, 254, 211-217. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178117300665

Cheng, Q., Li, T. M., KwoK, C-L., Zhu, T. & Yip, P. S. F. (2015). Assessing suicide risk and emotional distress in Chinese social media: A text mining and machine learning study. J Med Internet Res, 19(7), e243. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318333772_Assessing_Suicide_Risk_and_Emotional_Distress_in_Chinese_Social_Media_A_Text_Mining_and_Machine_Learning_Study

Conti, M. A., Jardim, A. P., Hearst, N., Cordás, T.A., Tavares, H. & Abreu, C. N. (2012). Evaluation of semantic equivalence and internal consistency of a Portuguese version of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Rev Psiq Clín, 39(3),106-10. Retrieved from: https://www.scielo.br/pdf/rpc/v39n3/en_a07v39n3.pdf

Daine, K., Hawton, K., Singaravelu, V., Stewart, A., Simkin, S. & Montgomery, P. (2013). The power of the web: A systematic review of studies of the influence of the internet on self-harm and suicide in young people. PLoS One, 8(10), e77555. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077555

Fu, K. W., Chan, W. S. C., Wong, P. W. C. & Yip, P. S. F. (2010). Internet addiction: Prevalence, discriminant validity and correlates among adolescents in Hong Kong. British Journal of Psychiatry, 196, 486–492. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.109.075002

Fumero, A., Marrero, R. J., Voltes, D. & Penate, W. (2018). Personal and social factors involved in internet addiction among adolescents: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 387-400. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563218302310

Greenfield, D. (2011). As propriedades de dependência do uso de internet. In: Young, K. S.; Abreu, C. N. Dependência de Internet. Manual e guia de avaliação e tratamento. Porto Alegre. ArtMed.

Ho, R. C., Zhang, M. W., Tsang, T. Y., Toh, A. H., Pan, F., Lu, Y., Cheng, C., Yip, P. S., Lam, L. T., Lai, C. M., Watanabe, H. & Mak, K. K. (2014). The association between internet addiction and psychiatric co-morbidity: a meta-analysis. BMC psychiatry, 14, 183. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-183

Huang, Y., Xu, L., Mei, Y., Wei, Z., Wen, H. & Liu, D. (2020). Problematic Internet use and the risk of suicide ideation in Chinese adolescents: A cross-sectional analysis. Psychiatry Res, 290: 112963. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178120300433

IBOPE Inteligência. (2019). Youth and Connections / Telefonica Vivo Foundation; Social Knowledge Network (3ª ed.) São Paulo: Telefonica Vivo Foundation.Retrieved from: http://fundacaotelefonicavivo.org.br/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/juventudes-e-conexoes-3edicao-completa.pdf

Internet World Stats. (2020). World internet usage and population statistics. Retrieved from: https://internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Internet World Stats. (2020). Internet Usage and Population in South America. 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats15.htm#south

Jasso-Medrano, J. L. & Lopez-Rosales, F. (2018). Measuring the relationship between social media use and addictive behavior and depression and suicide ideation among university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 87,183-91. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563218302292

Kaslow, Nadine. Suicidal Bahavior in Children and Adolescents. (2014). Presentation of American Psychological Association. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/suicidal-behavior-adolescents.pdf

Kelley, K. J. & Gruber, E. M. (2010). Psychometric properties of the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1838-1845. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.018

Kiersz, A. & Akhtar, A. (2019). Suicide is Gen Z's second-leading cause of death, and it's a worse epidemic than anything millennials faced at that age. In Business Insider. New York. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-teenage-gen-z-american-suicide-epidemic

Kim, B. S., Chang, S. M., Park, J. E., Seong, S. J., Won, S. H. & Cho, M. J. (2016). Prevalence, correlates, psychiatric comorbidities, and suicidality in a community population with problematic Internet use. Psychiatry Research, 244, 249-56. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016517811530130X?via%3Dihub

King, A. L. S., Pádua, M. K., Guedes, E., Gonçalves, L. L., Guimarães, F. L., Dos Santos, H. K., Rodrigues, D. & Nardi, A. E (2019). Scale to evaluate the abusive use of technologies. MedicalExpress, 6:mo19006. Retrieved from: https://www.scielo.br/pdf/medical/v6/2358-0429-medical-06-mo19006.pdf

Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T. & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? Am Psychol, 53(9),1017–31. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13445276_Internet_Paradox_A_Social_Technology_That_Reduces_Social_Involvement_and_Psychological_Well-Being#fullTextFileContent

Lin, I-H., Ko, C-H., Chang, Y-P., Liu, T-L., Wang, P-W., Lin, H-C., Huang, M-F., Yeh, Y-C. & Chou W-J. (2014). The association between suicidality and Internet addiction and activities in Taiwanese adolescentes. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 55(3), 504–510. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2013.11.012

Lin, L. Y., Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., Hoffman, B. L., Giles, L. M. & Primack, B. A. (2016). Association between Social Media Use and Depression among U.S. Young Adults. Depress Anxiety, 33(4), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22466

Macías, E. F. S. & Camargo, Y. S. (2015). Factores asociados a ideación suicida em universitarios. Psychol. av. discip, 9(1), 71-81. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S1900-23862015000100006&script=sci_abstract&tlng=es

Mayaute, M. E. & Blas, E. S. (2014). Construcción y validación del cuestionario de Adicción a Redes Sociales (ARS). Liberabit, 20(1), 73-91. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.org.pe/pdf/liber/v20n1/a07v20n1.pdf

Melnyk, B. M. & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2015). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: a guide to best practice (3ª ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

Mendes, K. D. S., Silveira, R. C.P. C. & Galvão, C. M. (2008). Integrative literature review: a research method to incorporate evidence in health care and nursing. Texto Contexto Enferm, 17(4), 758-64. Retrieved from: https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-07072008000400018

Monteiro, G. T. R. (2013). Pesquisa em Saúde Pública: como desenvolver e validar instrumentos de coleta de dados. (1ª ed). Curitiba: Appris.

Moreno, M. A., Jelenchick, L. A. & Christakis, D. A. (2013). Problematic internet use among older adolescents: A conceptual framework. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1879–1887. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563213000563

Osman, A., Gutierrez, P. M., Kopper, B. A., Barrios, F. X. & Chiros, C. E. (1998). The positive and negative suicide ideation inventory: development and validation. Psychological reports, 82(3 Pt 1), 783–793. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1998.82.3.783

Park, S., Hong, K. E., Park, E. J., Ha, K. S. & Yoo, H. J. (2013). The association between problematic internet use and depression, suicidal ideation and bipolar disorder symptoms in Korean adolescents. The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 47(2), 153–159. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867412463613

Picon, F., Karam, R., Breda, V., Restano, A., Silveira, A. & Spritzer, D. (2015). We need to talk about technology: clinical characterization of the technology addiction subtypes. Rev. bras. Psicoter, 17(2), 44-60. Retrieved from: http://rbp.celg.org.br/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=177

Poorolajal, J., Ahmadpoor, J., Mohammadi, Y., Soltanian, A. R., Asghari, S. Z. & Mazloumi, E. (2019). Prevalence of problematic internet use disorder and associated risk factors and complications among Iranian university students: a national survey. Health Promotion Perspectives, 9(3), 207-13. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6717927/

Poorolajal, J., Mohammadi, Y., Soltanian, A. R. & Ahmadpoor, J. (2018). The top six risky behaviors among Iranian university students: a national survey. Journal of Public Health, 41(4), 788-97. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdy204

Santos, C. M. C., Pimenta, C. A. M. & Nobre, M. R. C. (2007). The Pico strategy for the research question construction and evidence search. Rev Latino-Am Enfermagem, 15(3), 508-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-11692007000300023

Santos, H. G. B., Marcon, S. R., Espinosa, M. M., Baptista, M. N. & Paulo, P. M. C. (2017). Factors associated with suicidal ideation among university students. Rev Latino-Am. Enfermagem, 25, e2878. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.1592.2878

Shen, Y., Meng, F., Xu, H., Li, X., Zhang, Y., Huang, C., Luo, X. & Zhang, X. Y. (2020). Internet addiction among college students in a Chinese population: Prevalence, correlates, and its relationship with suicide attempts. Depression and anxiety, 37(8), 812–821. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1002/da.23036

Silva, T. P. S. & Sougey, E. B. (2016). Suicide behavior assessment scales in adolescents in the general population. Rev. Bras. Pesq. Saúde, 18(3), 144-154. Retrieved from: https://periodicos.ufes.br/index.php/rbps/article/view/15754

Silva, V. C. (2016). Validation and reliability of the Brazilian version of the Internet Dependency Test (IAT). (Master's Thesis) La Salle University Center. Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul. 2016. Retrieved from: http://svr-net20.unilasalle.edu.br/handle/11690/692

Torrente, E., Piqueras, A., Orgiles, M. & Espada, J. P. (2014). Association of Internet addiction with social anxiety and lack of social skills in Spanish adolescents. Ter. Psicol, 32. 175e184. Retrieved from: https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/portal/resource/pt/lil-734889

Tsouvelas, G. & Giotakos, O. (2011). Internet use and pathological internet engagement in a sample of college students. Psychiatriki, 22(3), 221-30. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51693514_Internet_use_and_pathological_internet_engagement_in_a_sample_of_college_students

Weinstein, A. & Lejoyeux, M. (2010). Internet addiction or excessive internet use. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 277–83. doi: 10.3109/00952990.2010.491880

World Health Organization. (2012). Public Health Action for Suicide Prevention: a structure. Geneve. Retrieved from: http://site.cfp.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/documento-suic%C3%ADdio-traduzido.pdf

Xin, M., Xing, J., Pengfei, W., Houru, L., Mengcheng, W. & Hong, Z. (2018). Online activities, prevalence of Internet addiction and risk factors related to family and school among adolescents in China. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 7, 14–18. doi: 10.1016/j.abrep.2017.10.003

Yen, J-Y., Ko, C-H., Yen, C. F., Wu, H-Y. & Yang, M-J. (2007). The comorbid psychiatric symptoms of Internet addiction: Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, social phobia, and hostility. J Adolesc Health, 41(1), 93–98. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.02.002

Younes, F., Halawi, G., Jabbour, H., El Osta, N., Karam, L., Hajj, A. & Khabbaz (2016). Internet Addiction and Relationships with Insomnia, Anxiety, Depression, Stress and Self-Esteem in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Designed Study. Plos One 11(9). Retrieved from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161126

Downloads

Published

22/05/2021

How to Cite

DUPRAT, I. P. .; ALVES, V. de M. .; OLIVEIRA, J. M. de .; FISCHER, F. M. . Association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students. Research, Society and Development, [S. l.], v. 10, n. 6, p. e10810615505, 2021. DOI: 10.33448/rsd-v10i6.15505. Disponível em: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/15505. Acesso em: 19 apr. 2024.

Issue

Section

Review Article