Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter reviews the related literature which will

substantiate and support the details of this comprehensive study.

It will also provide a synthesis of the reviewed related

literature and a discussion of the gaps bridged by this research.

Relationship between internet addiction and academic performance

of undergraduate medical students of Azad Kashmir

The current study attempted to investigate the relationship

between internet addiction and academic performance of the

medical students of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. Baseline

characteristics and responses to the Internet addiction questions

were presented as frequencies and percentages. Internet addiction

score was calculated by adding all 5-points Likert scale

questions for each respondent. Scoring for the Likert scale

questions were done as follows: 0 = does not apply, 1 = rarely, 2

= occasionally, 3 = frequently, 4 = often, and 5 = always.

Out of 500 undergraduate medical students (year 2 to 5), 316

students responded to the study questionnaire and were included

in this study (response rate of 63.2%). Majority of the

respondents were female 187 (59.2%), and their median age was 22
years. The highest internet addiction score found was 93 by two

students and the lowest score was two. The median internet

addiction score was 38.

Seventy students always stay online longer than intended.

The same number of respondents believe that life without the

internet is boring and joyless. When asked about ‘How often do

your grades or school work suffers because of the amount of time

you spend online?’, 45 replied ‘frequently’, 19 answered ‘often’,

and 31 said ‘always’. Responses to all internet addiction

questions s per the internet addiction scores, 89 falls in severe

addiction category whereas only 3 had no internet addiction.

Internet addiction score was not statistically significantly

different across age and gender. However, IA score was

significantly different for the students of different medical

years with third year students scoring the highest mean. Academic

performance was also significantly associated with IA. A mild

downhill correlation was found between internet addiction

categories (no addiction, mild addiction, moderate addiction, and

severe addiction) and academic performance.

Their study revealed only a handful of medical students were

not internet addicted which is very alarming because the internet

in Pakistan is still not very cheap and super-fast. Those who

were internet addicted showed deteriorated academic performance

compared to those who were not internet addicted.

Effect of Internet Addiction on the Academic Performance of

Junior and Senior High School Students of Mapanas Agro-Industrial

High School, Mapanas, Northern Samar: University of Eastern

Philippines Extension Services Collaborative Output

This study evaluated and determined the effect of internet

addiction on the academic performance of junior and senior high

school students of Mapanas Agro-Industrial High School.

Identified the demographic profile of the respondents. Their

respondents consist of thirty respondents for three groups or all

in all a total of ninety respondents who are pre-identified users

of the internet, and were assessed and correlated to their

academic performances. The respondents of this study were all

junior and senior high school students of Mapanas Agro-Industrial

School. Most of them came from Mapanas.

Their table 1 shows that academic performance was

significantly correlated with academic orientation and

recreational orientation. However, academic performance not

significantly correlated with social orientation. These findings

show that social orientation does not affect the academic

performance of the students, it implied that some academic

achievers, not good orientation.

 Their table 2 shows that sex significantly correlated with

recreational orientation having significant value less than 0.05

margin of error level. This finding means that male students had

higher manifestations of recreational orientation compared to

female students. It implied that male students of Mapanas Agro-

Industrial School are more on internet than females.

According to the conclusion under this study, majority of the

respondents were female. It implied that male students of Mapanas

Agro-Industrial School are more on internet utilization than females

concerning the recreational orientation. That on the typology of

internet utilization, whether for social or recreational purposes

have direct effect onthe academic performance of the students of

Mapanas Agro-Industrial High School. That social orientation does

not affect the academic performance of the students; it implied

that some academic achievers may not have befitting social

orientation.

Internet Addiction, Mental Health and Academic Performance of

School Students/Adolescents

According to a study by Singh and Barmola (2015), their

study has revealed that internet addiction has a significant

effect on students / adolescents’ academic performance and mental

health.
 Their table 1 reveals the effect of internet addiction on

academic performance of adolescents that the Mean Square Variance

MS (V) between groups was 273.66, the mean square variance within

the groups was 82.20 and the f-value was found to be significant

at 0.05 level. Therefore, their first hypothesis is accepted

which states that there would be a significant effect of internet

addiction on the academic performance of adolescents/students. It

may be inferred from the findings that internet addiction did

influence the academic performance of students. Furthermore, it

is results also indicate that the severe and profound groups of

internet addiction were found to be more prone to having

difficulties in the academic performance.

For their table 2, it indicates the effect of internet

addiction on mental health of students and indicated that MS for

between and within groups was found to be 311 and 85.6

respectively. The MS value further indicates that there would be

significant effect of internet addiction on the mental health of

adolescents/students. On their second hypothesis, one can

conclude from our findings that there is a significant effect of

internet addiction on the mental health of students. One

plausible explanation for the same could be that adolescents find

the internet a much more accessible, convenient and easy mode of

expressing their feelings and emotions than resorting to a face-

to-face mode of communication.

 Findings of the present study revealed that there was a

significant effect of internet addiction on academic performance

and mental health of students/adolescents. Results further

indicated that the students who were in the severe and profound

groups of internet addiction were found to have detrimental

effects both in their academic performance and mental health

rather than the students who were addicted to the internet usage

moderately. Therefore, one can conclude from the present

investigation that internet usage can be beneficial to students

in their academic set-up and may not cause potential harm to

their mental health if used in moderation.

Understanding the Cognitive Impact of Internet Addiction on

Adolescents

This chapter describes the cognitive impact of internet

addiction on adolescents. It details the effects of technology

and virtual media use on the development of the adolescent’s

brain and reports some of the cognitive repercussions of the

excessive use of games, TV, the Internet, and other platforms for

mobile phones and tablets. Internet-addicted individuals show

poor skills in controlling or inhibiting their responses. Another

aspect that deserves to be mentioned is the lack of attention.

The constant lack of attention produced by the internet results

in a phenomenon that some have explained as “distracted from

distraction by distraction. Research studies suggest that people

who are constantly online activate regions associated with

language, memory, and visual processing in a lower intensity,

that is, they do not display much activity in the prefrontal

area.

Internet addiction among college students: Some causes and

effects

Internet addiction among college students in terms of causes

and effects are investigated. Correlation study method is

utilized; structural equation modelling is applied to analyze the

data. There are fifteen hypotheses generated for the model. The

data is collected via numerous instruments proven as reliable and

valid by the previous studies. There are 159 undergraduate

students as participants of the study. Antecedent variables are

game addiction, bad relationships with friends, family and

professors, neglecting daily chores, hindrance of sleep pattern,

use internet for researching, weekly internet use hours, leisure

time activities, reading and playing computer games. Consequence

variables are self-esteem, self-confidence, social self-efficacy,

loneliness, and academic self-efficacy. The results indicates

that game addiction, neglecting daily chores, bad relationships

with professors are significantly associated with internet

addiction. Internet addiction decreases one’s self-esteem, self-

confidence, social self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy and

triggers loneliness. Parents, professors and educational

institutions may be illuminated about prevention or monitoring of

internet addiction. The current study investigates Internet

addiction with respect to its implications for social behavioral,

and psychological phenomenon but not in a clinical sense. Hence,

studies on Internet addiction merely concentrate on antecedents

and features that may cause more addiction; however, both

antecedents and consequences are not examined. The value of the

current study is to provide more systematic, comprehensive, and

theory-based empirical causations via structural equation models.

The model may help to diagnose Internet Addiction and illuminate

college students its potential harmful socio-psychological

consequences.

College Female and Male Heavy Internet Users' Profiles of

Practices and Their Academic Grades and Psychosocial Adjustment

According to Chen and Peng (2008) found that heavy Internet

users, as a group had significantly lower academic grades than

non-heavy users, we found only two profiles to have significantly

lower academic grades than non-heavy users. One profile, female

heavy Internet users favoring information seeking and chatting,

even had significantly better grades than female non-heavy users.

These results suggest that spending a lot of time on information

seeking and chatting on the Internet does not necessarily impair

students’ academic achievement; rather, sometimes it helps

students’ academic performance, with being the most obvious

example. These results are consistent with Kuh and Hu’s findings.

These results also suggest that spending a lot of time playing

online games seems to damage students’ academic performance.

They also found that heavy Internet users as a group have

significantly higher loneliness, physical illness, and depression

scores than non-heavy users; however, when we further grouped

students into homogeneous profiles based on their Internet

practices, we detected more subtle differences. For females, all

three heavy user profiles had significantly lower average scores

than those of the female non-heavy users on only one of the

psychosocial adjustment variables: depression. And among the

three profiles, FH3 had the worst psychosocial adjustment,

reporting significantly higher scores than those of the female

non-heavy users on all three variables: loneliness, physical

illness, and depression. The associations between patterns of

Internet practice and psychological adjustment seem to be less

significant for male heavy users.

This technology use is depicted as general use, which

included both academic use and non-academic time spent on the

Internet
Internet Addiction – How Much is too Much Time on the Internet?

Parents around the world are concerned that their kids may

be spending so much time in the “screen world”, that their kids

may be missing out on real life experiences. Here are some of the

stats to back that up:

It’s estimated that kids and teens between the ages of 8 to

28 spend about 44.5 hours each week in front of digital screens.

About 23% of kids and teens have reported that they actually feel

as if they have addictions to video games. That breaks down to

31% of males and 13% of females. These days, kids and especially

teens need the Internet to research information for school

projects. And, when used properly, it can be a reliable source of

information for kids who simply love to read or want to learn

more about specific topics.

These are just some of the negative effects too much screen

time can have on your children:

Increased chances of becoming obese, even morbidly obese if

the problem continues for a long period of time.  There’s no

physical movement involved in screen time and often it is

combined with munching on high calorie snack food. Plus, kids

don’t like to take time away from their digital screens to sit

down to healthy meals. And, what’s more, many parents aren’t

making them.

Harder time getting to bed, and problems with them falling

asleep as they continue obsessing about the Internet, video

games, and TV programs during the night. Increased possibility of

developing depression, anxiety, and attention problems, including

ADD and ADHD.

Internet Addiction and Interpersonal Communication Skills Among

High School Students in Tabriz, Iran

According to Ansari et al., (2017), their current study

aimed at estimating the prevalence of internet addiction (IA) and

its relationship with interpersonal communication skills (ICS)

and socio-educational factors among high school students in

Tabriz, Northwest of Iran. The data were collected using a valid

and reliable self-administered questionnaire. The direct

standardization method was employed to calculate IA prevalence.

The results of the current study showed that the prevalence

of IA among adolescent internet users was 45.8% and IA was more

prevalent among males than females.  Although the previous works

in Iran showed that IA phenomenon increased among adolescents,

the study population, place of study, and sample size could

explain the increasing trend in IA over time.

 Severe and moderate internet addiction was higher in males

than females. These findings were similar with those of some

previous studies conducted in Iran and other studies worldwide.

Also, according to the results of a study by Sipal et al.,

compared to females, males spend more time on internet. Overall,

it is evident that gender influences IA. As females and males have

different preferences in their internet activities, gender

differences in IA may depend on the type of internet activity.

Expectations from gender roles may also explain gender difference

in internet use.

Overall, the prevalence of IA among adolescents in the

Northwest of Iran was high. Males were more at risk of IA than

females. Improvements of ICS may prevent internet addiction in

adolescents. It seems that collaboration between parents,

teachers, and authorities of high schools to warn and change the

students’ attitude towards their lives, especially at the

beginning of high school, could more effectively address the

emerging phenomenon of IA.