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. METHOD: 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. CONCLUSION: Those adolescents with excessive computer use were found to show serious sociopsychiatric problems.