Characteristics of Temperament and Character Properties in Adolescents with Internet Addiction Tendency

Lee, Moon Soo; Hong, Sung Do David; Joung, Yoo Sook

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Recent studies have focused on characteristics of adolescents who use internet addictively. Due to many ambiguities in the definitions of internet addiction, it is hard to find a tool for diagnosing internet addiction. In this study, we attempt to identify the temperamental characteristics of adolescents who have addictive internet using patterns by administering a newly developed internet addiction scale based on a psychometric technique and temperament and character inventory (TCI) based on Cloninger's psychobiological model.
METHODS
Participants were 566 high school students. 478 students were recruited from high schools, and 88 were selected from internet cafes. We applied the internet addiction scale and TCI. All the students were divided into 3 groups (high risk user group, potential risk user group and normal user group) according to the results of the internet addiction scale. TCI scores were compared and analyzed according to the participants' characteristics.
RESULTS
There were significant differences in the distribution of internet user group according to gender. Boys had higher percentage of high risk and potential risk users than girls. When each TCI score was compared according to gender, girls showed significantly higher harm avoidance, reward dependence, cooperativeness scale scores and lower persistence, self-transcendence scale scores than boys. TCI scores were compared among the internet addiction risk user groups. Risky internet users showed lower scores in reward dependence, self-directness and cooperativeness dimensions than normal internet users.
CONCLUSION
There was a gender difference in internet addiction risk in this study. These results suggest that adolescents who use internet addictively also have higher tendency of problematic social and interpersonal relationship. These tendencies need to be considered as one of the important aspects of internet addiction. This study shows that assessment of temperament and character in adolescents who have problems related to the internet may be needed for understanding their addiction behaviors and underlying psychopathologies.