TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescent Internet Use, Social Integration, and Depressive Symptoms
T2 - Analysis from a Longitudinal Cohort Survey
AU - Strong, Carol
AU - Lee, Chih Ting
AU - Chao, Lo Hsin
AU - Lin, Chung Ying
AU - Tsai, Meng Che
N1 - Funding Information:
Data analyzed in this article were collected by the research project “Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS)” sponsored by Academia Sinica and the National Academy for Educational Research, Ministry of Education, Taiwan. The Center for Survey Research of the Academia Sinica is responsible for the distribution of data. The above-mentioned institutes had no further role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The authors appreciate the assistance in providing data from the TEPS project.
Funding Information:
Received July 2017; accepted December 2017. This study was funded partly by the Medical Science and Technology Research Grant awarded to C. T. Lee from the National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH-10408025) and partly by the research grant awarded to C. Strong from the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 103-2410-H-006-001). Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest. C. Strong and C. T. Lee contributed equally to this work. M. C. Tsai and C. Strong conceived and supervised the entire study. L. H. Chao and C. Y. Lin were responsible for data analysis. C. T. Lee and C. Strong drafted the manuscript. All the authors have seen and approved the submission of this version of the manuscript and take full responsibility of the manuscript. Address for reprints: Meng-Che Tsai, MD, MSc, Department of Pediatrics, National Cheng-Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Rd, Tainan, 704 Taiwan; e-mail: [email protected].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this 8 article is prohibited.
PY - 2018/5/1
Y1 - 2018/5/1
N2 - To examine the association between adolescent leisure-time Internet use and social integration in the school context and how this association affects later depressive symptoms among adolescents in Taiwan, using a large nationwide cohort study and the latent growth model (LGM) method.Methods:Data of 3795 students followed from the year 2001 to 2006 in the Taiwan Education Panel Survey were analyzed. Leisure-time Internet use was defined by the hours per week spent on (1) online chatting and (2) online games. School social integration and depressive symptoms were self-reported. We first used an unconditional LGM to estimate the baseline (intercept) and growth (slope) of Internet use. Next, another LGM conditioned with school social integration and depression was conducted.Results:Approximately 10% of the participants reported engaging in online chatting and/or gaming for more than 20 hours per week. Internet use for online chatting showed an increase over time. School social integration was associated with the baseline amount (coefficient = -0.62, p < 0.001) but not the growth of leisure-time Internet use. The trend of Internet use was positively related to depressive symptoms (coefficient = 0.31, p < 0.05) at Wave 4.Conclusion:School social integration was initially associated with decreased leisure-time Internet use among adolescents. The growth of Internet use with time was not explainable by school social integration but had adverse impacts on depression. Reinforcing adolescents' bonding to school may prevent initial leisure-time Internet use. When advising on adolescent Internet use, health care providers should consider their patients' social networks and mental well-being.
AB - To examine the association between adolescent leisure-time Internet use and social integration in the school context and how this association affects later depressive symptoms among adolescents in Taiwan, using a large nationwide cohort study and the latent growth model (LGM) method.Methods:Data of 3795 students followed from the year 2001 to 2006 in the Taiwan Education Panel Survey were analyzed. Leisure-time Internet use was defined by the hours per week spent on (1) online chatting and (2) online games. School social integration and depressive symptoms were self-reported. We first used an unconditional LGM to estimate the baseline (intercept) and growth (slope) of Internet use. Next, another LGM conditioned with school social integration and depression was conducted.Results:Approximately 10% of the participants reported engaging in online chatting and/or gaming for more than 20 hours per week. Internet use for online chatting showed an increase over time. School social integration was associated with the baseline amount (coefficient = -0.62, p < 0.001) but not the growth of leisure-time Internet use. The trend of Internet use was positively related to depressive symptoms (coefficient = 0.31, p < 0.05) at Wave 4.Conclusion:School social integration was initially associated with decreased leisure-time Internet use among adolescents. The growth of Internet use with time was not explainable by school social integration but had adverse impacts on depression. Reinforcing adolescents' bonding to school may prevent initial leisure-time Internet use. When advising on adolescent Internet use, health care providers should consider their patients' social networks and mental well-being.
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U2 - 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000553
DO - 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000553
M3 - Article
C2 - 29461298
AN - SCOPUS:85047460768
SN - 0196-206X
VL - 39
SP - 318
EP - 324
JO - Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
JF - Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
IS - 4
ER -