Prevalence and Predictors of Internet Addiction Among Adolescents Before the First Wave of COVID-19 Lockdown in India

TL;DR

This study examines how common internet addiction was among Indian adolescents before the first pandemic lockdown and identifies factors that contribute to it.

Contribution

The paper provides new insights into the prevalence and psychosocial predictors of internet addiction in Indian adolescents pre-lockdown.

Findings

65% of adolescents showed mild, moderate, or severe internet addiction before the first lockdown.

Age (14-16 years), daily internet use duration, and financial issues were significant predictors of internet addiction.

Most participants (100%) used the internet daily, with 13% starting in 6th grade.

Abstract

Background

Internet dependency behavior was found to be prevalent among adolescents even before the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns across the world including India. Adolescent users develop Internet addiction due to various risk factors.

Aim

The aim is to measure the prevalence and psychosocial predictors of internet addiction among adolescents before the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in India.

Methods

A cross-sectional, descriptive study before the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown, included 1199 adolescents of both genders, aged 11 to 19 years, at selected educational settings from a city in south India, by using Young's Internet addiction test (IAT)-20 and structured questioner.

Results

The study found almost all the participants (100%) were using the internet in a day and the highest number of subjects started using the internet during their 6th standard of education (13%). Before the first wave of COVID-19 lockdown, the prevalence of a total of mild, moderate, and severe forms of internet addiction among adolescents was 65%. Individual, family, and community-related risk factors were found significant association with Internet addiction. The age of 14-16 years (OR 2.050, p= 0.000), duration of internet use in a day (OR 0.740, p= 0.064), financial matters (OR 0.981, p=0.016), total internet addiction score (OR 1.03, p=0.035) and timings of internet use (OR 1.161, p=0.004), were significant predictors of Internet addiction.

Conclusion

Internet addiction was prevalent and a notable behavior addiction among adolescents during the margin time of pre-pandemic and the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in India. The study highlighted many significant psychosocial risk factors and predictors of Internet Addiction in adolescents, thus the need for a panoramic approach to identify internet addiction in adolescents, to bring the modest behavior of healthy use of the internet in adolescents.