Internet addiction 'doubles teen self harm'
Internet addiction 'doubles teen self harm'
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Thursday, 03, Dec 2009 12:01
By Alex Steger.
Teenagers addicted to the internet are twice as likely to self harm, according to researchers in China.
Internet addiction has been classed as a mental illness since the mid 90s.
The research published today in Injury Prevention is based on a survey of 1,618 schoolchildren aged between 13 and 18 from the Guangzhou, China. It found that those who were addicted to being online were twice as likely to commit self harm.
The teenagers were assessed for internet addiction and asked to fill in a questionnaire designed to reveal whether or not they were self harming.
Of those surveyed only one in ten was deemed to be addicted to the internet the rest being classified as normal internet users. Sixteen per cent of the teenagers said they had self harmed in the previous six months with four and a half per cent reportedly self harming on at least half a dozen occasions
The researchers took into account other factors commonly associated with self harm such as health problems, sleep quotas, stressful events, and lifestyle. With these accounted for teenagers who were deemed to be either moderately or severely addicted to the internet still appeared twice as likely to have self harmed as those who did not suffer the same addiction.
But the figure is not as alarming as it first appears. For the purposes of the survey self harm was deemed to refer to hair pulling, hitting, deliberate burning and pinching.
Previous research into self harm has indicated a link with people who have an addictive personality.