Master of Arts (Applied Psychology)

This study explored the relationship between Pathological Internet Usage (PIU) with three different areas; mental health factors, personal strengths and academic performance. The mental health factors investigated were loneliness, depression, social anxiety, and online social comfort. The facets of personal strengths were emotional awareness, emotional regulation, self-efficacy, social acceptance and empathy. Academic performance was based on scores from three subjects, English, Mathematics and Second Language. 3,727 students from 10-18 years participated in this study. The survey questionnaire was an adaptation of the Pathological Internet Use (PIU) instrument, which was adapted from the Pathological Video Gaming Scale (Choo, Gentile, Sim, Li, Khoo & Liau, 2010) and also based on the questionnaire used in the EU Kids Online project (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009). Additional items such as personal strengths (Liau, Chow, Chan, & Senf, 2010); depression (Woo, Chang, Fung, Koh, Leong, & Kee, 2004); online social comfort (Davis, Elett, & Besser, 2002); and social anxiety (Birmaher, Khetermal, Brent, Cully, Balach, & Kaufman, 1997) were included to address the specific research components. Correlation analyses, three-way 2x2x2 ANOVAs and post hoc tests were conducted to examine the relationships of mental health variables, personal strengths and academic performance with PIU and non PIU students of different gender (boys and girls) and educational level (primary and secondary). Findings from this study have shown that PIU is related to mental health problems, weak personal strengths and poor academic performance. The study also shows that there are gender and educational differences between PIU and non PIU students. Lastly, it suggests that when screening for academic, social or mental health problems in children, PIU should be considered as an influencing factor. It is also recommended that differences in gender and educational level are taken into account as predisposing factors when educating and assessing children with PIU.