Internet addiction among school children in the Western Province of Sri Lanka: A cross sectional analytical study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The internet is widely used across the world and in Sri Lanka for many purposes. Though essential for everyday life there are many negative aspects of internet use. Addiction to the internet is one such problem and identified to exist among the general population and students in other countries. The most common tool used to measure internet addiction is Young’s internet addiction test. The phenomena of internet addiction has not been scientifically studied in Sri Lanka according to our knowledge. OBJECTIVE To translate Young’s internet addiction test to Sinhala and validate for use in a Sri Lankan population. Once the questionnaire has been validated to assess the prevalence of internet addiction in a school going population in the Western province of Sri Lanka and identify characteristics of those addicted to the internet. METHODS A school based cross sectional analytical study. Students aged 15 to 19 years in the Western province of Sri Lanka were given a self administered questionnaire to obtain demographic details and pattern of internet use as well as Young’s internet addiction test. Data was analyzed by SPSS 23.0 RESULTS The Sinhala translation of the Internet addiction test showed good reliability and validity and was suitable to use in a Sinhala speaking population in Sri Lanka. Internet addiction was identified among the study population. 8% of the entire study sample and 12.6% among those using the internet showed features of internet addiction. The majority of cases of internet addiction identified were mild 8.2% followed by moderate internet addiction in 3.6% and only 0.9 % having severe internet addiction. There were no significant demographic or internet use related features identified among those with internet users and those not addicted to the internet. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that there are students in Sri Lanka who are addicted to the internet. This will possibly impact negatively on their lives at a crucial stage of development and have immediate as well as long term detrimental effects. Therefore students and relevant stakeholders such as parents and educationalists need to be aware of this potential risk of using the internet. More studies are required to identify characteristics of those who are addicted to the internet and to plan interventions.