paper

1. Internet function and Internet addictive behavior
Shih-Ming Li *, Teng-Ming Chung
Department of Psychology, National Chung-Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, ROC
Available online 9 April 2004
Abstract
Ju [Research on personal characteristics, the behavior of using Internet and Internet addiction for
Taiwanese college study. Master thesis. Taiwan, 2000] found the Internet function was related to the
severity of Internet addiction, and this study explored the relationship between the Internet function
and the Internet addictive behavior. Seventy-six college students were included in this study and had
completed the Internet use function questionnaire (social function, informational function, leisure
function and the virtual emotional function) and the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale (compulsive
use, withdrawal, tolerance, time management problem and interpersonal and health problems).
The study revealed not only the relationship between the social function and the index of the Internet
dependence (compulsive use, withdrawal, tolerance and the problems in the interpersonal relationship
and health), but also the correlation between the information function and the index of the Internet
abuse (the problems in the interpersonal relationship and health). We found the social function played
the core role in the Internet addictive behavior and the mechanism needs further discussion.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Internet; Addiction; Interpersonal
1. Introduction
The Internet using was popular among the college students and they spent 164 min/day
using the Internet on average (Yu, 2001). In Taiwan, 6% of the college students are Inter-
net addicts (Chou & Hsiao, 2000). Therefore, the Internet using problems deserve careful
attention.
Various epithets are used to describe people who engage in excessive Internet using
that results in negative outcomes such as ‘‘Internet addicts’’, ‘‘computer-mediated
0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2004.03.030
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shiming@mail2000.com.tw (S.-M. Li).
Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 1067–1071
www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh
Computers in
Human Behavior

2. communication addictive’’, ‘‘problematic Internet use’’ (Caplan, 2002) and ‘‘the patho-
logical Internet use’’ (Davis, 2001). ‘‘The problematic Internet use’’, ‘‘Internet addiction
(disorder)’’, ‘‘Internetomania’’ and ‘‘pathological Internet use’’ were the pseudonym
terms (Shapira et al., 2003). The ‘‘Internet addictive behavior (disorder)’’ was the clear-
est conceptualization and appeared with the highest frequency in the related studies
(Fung, 2002; Ju, 2000; Yu, 2001). At first, Goldberg (1995) used ‘‘the Internet addiction
disorder’’ to represent the human who has some problems following the Internet use,
and Young (1996) defined the Internet addiction from the aspects of compulsive use,
withdrawal, tolerance and related consequences of Internet dependence (Ju, 2000). In
Taiwan, Cheng, Weng, Su, Wu, and Yang (2003) followed the concept of Young’s Inter-
net addiction model and designed the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) to assess
the Internet addictive behavior among Internet users in Taiwan (Fung, 2002). The
subscales of CIAS were following the substance-dependent concept of DSM-IV. The
subscales of CIAS not only included the core criteria like tolerance, withdrawal and dys-
function, but also added the impulsive use as an important criterion which was also a
criterion in DSM-III-R. In this study, the CIAS was used to assess the Internet addictive
behavior.
There were already many studies discussed the factors related to the Internet addictive
behavior (IAB). The psychopathology factors like depression and anxiety (Yu, 2001), the
personality factors, like neurosis, openness and consciousness (Yu, 2001), sensation seek-
ing (Lin & Tsai, 2002), self-esteem (Ju, 2000), attachment (Wang, 2000), the Internet use
behavior and gender (Fung, 2002) were related to the IAB. There are many intrapersonal
and interpersonal variables relating to the IAB. However, those studies only explored the
relationship between the above-referred variables and the Internet use behavior (addictive
or problematic use) without further constructing a model to explain the addictive or prob-
lematic use.
Davis (2001) used the cognitive-behavior model to explain the pathological Internet use
(PIU), which was similar to the Internet addictive behavior. According to his model, mal-
adaptive cognition and social isolation played the proximal roles in the pathological Inter-
net use. Caplan (2002) further included 386 college students to explain PIU by using the
cognitive-behavior model and he found that one’s preference for computer-mediated
social interaction played a role in the etiology, development and outcome of generalized
PIU. Caplan (2002) found the interpersonal factor yielded the generalized PIU. Ju
(2000) found the Internet function was related to the severity of Internet addiction and
the social function (r = 0.62) of Internet for the college student can be the best example.
Those studies had revealed that the interpersonal factors play the important role in the
Internet behavior spectrum.
As the addictive behavior, the substance had functioned as a stuff which cannot be
abandoned (DSM-IV). Taking tobacco for an example and we found tobacco had the
social, pleasure, empowering, emotional and full-fledged function for the adolescents
who had the tobacco dependence. Young (1998) found the Internet dependence user used
Internet for social interaction (Ju, 2000). Therefore, the social function of Internet may be
an important issue in the Internet addiction study.
The interpersonal aspect was important for the Internet users ( Amichai-Hamburger &
Ben-Artzi, 2003; Cornwell & Lundgren, 2001; Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2003). As
shown in those studies, the interpersonal factor played an important role in the IAB.
Although those studies disclosed the interpersonal function of Internet and its influence
1068 S.-M. Li, T.-M. Chung / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 1067–1071

3. on the IAB (Caplan, 2002; Ju, 2000), they did not include the comprehensive concept of
the Internet addiction. In this study, we followed the studies of Caplan (2002) and Ju
(2000) and take the research further. We found the relationship between Internet use func-
tion, especially the interpersonal function, and the Internet addiction. About the Internet
addiction, we used the CIAS which included the criteria of the dependence and abuse in
DSM-IV to assess the comprehensive IAB.
This study explored the relationship between the Internet function and Internet addic-
tive behaviors including the Internet dependence and Internet abuse.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
Seventy-six college students were included in this study. The mean age was 19.76
(SD = 1.45) and 71% of the participants were male. They spent 3.27 h/day (SD = 2.04)
using the Internet on average.
2.2. Measurement
2.2.1. Internet use function questionnaire
The Internet use function questionnaire having high reliability and construct validity
included the following four subscales: social function, informational function, leisure func-
tion and the virtual emotional function (Ju, 2000).
2.2.2. Chinese Internet addiction scale
The CIAS was the scale for the Internet addictive behavior in Taiwan. It included five
subscales: compulsive use, withdrawal, tolerance, time management problem and interper-
sonal and health problems. In many studies, the scale showed good internal consistency
reliability (Cronbach alpha was 0.78–0.81) and fitting factor structure (Wang, 2000).
The DSM-IV criteria included substance abuse and dependence. The subscale of interper-
sonal and health problems in CIAS were related to the core criterion of substance abuse.
The subscale of withdrawal and tolerance in CIAS were related the core criterion of sub-
stance dependence. This study will use all of the subscales in CIAS to assess the Internet
addictive behavior. The scores of each subscales represents the severity of different prob-
lematic Internet behaviors and the total score of the CIAS represents the severity of the
overall Internet addictive behavior.
2.3. Procedure
Participants were asked to complete the Internet use function questionnaire and the
CIAS in class. Participants were informed that the purpose of the study was to examine
factors associated with Internet use in advance and they all agreed to join this study.
3. Results
In this study, we found that males used the Internet longer than females (t = 2.57,
p = 0.014). Males had more problematic Internet addictive behaviors than females (time
S.-M. Li, T.-M. Chung / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 1067–1071 1069

4. management problem: t = 2.05, p = 0.048, interpersonal and health problems: t =
2.15, p = 0.040) and males used the Internet mostly for recreational function (t = 3.55,
p = 0.001) and virtual emotional function (t = 2.31, p = 0.025).
About the addiction severity, we found a significance positive correlation between the
time management problem and the social function (r = 0.46, r = 0.60). From Table 1, we
found there are some positive correlation between the Internet functions and Internet
addictive behaviors. The social function was significantly related to all of the subscales
of CIAS, i.e., the compulsive use, withdrawal, tolerance, time management problem and
interpersonal and health problems. The information function was highly related to the
interpersonal and health problems. The recreational function and the virtual emotional
function were not related to the addictive behaviors.
4. Discussion
The social function was the key function of the Internet, which leads to the most severe
Internet addiction. On the other words, those who use the Internet for the social function
will get relatively more Internet use problems such as the compulsive use, withdrawal, tol-
erance, time management problem and the interpersonal and health problems and they
will exhibit more severe Internet addictive behaviors. For those who use the Internet for
the information function, they are apt to encounter the interpersonal and health problems.
In conclusion, the Internet use function was related to the Internet addiction behavior.
Caplan (2002) found the social factor play the important role in the Internet patholog-
ical use. In this study, we also found the social function of the Internet was highly positive
correlated with the severity of the Internet addictive behaviors. From Table 1, we found
the social function of Internet was high correlated with the problematic use such as time
management, avoidance emotion and impulsive use. However, the other functions of the
Internet including the informational function, recreational function and the virtual emo-
tional function were less related to the problematic use. Therefore, compared with the
other functions mentioned in this study, the social function play the relatively important
role in the Internet addictive behaviors. The social aspect was important to the Internet
use behavior and the social function of the Internet was the core variable to the Internet
addictive behavior.
The addictive behavior was characterized by the problems of abuse and dependence.
In this study, we found the social function and the informational function were highly
Table 1
The correlation between the Internet use function and the Internet addictive behavior
Social
function
Informational
function
Leisure
function
Virtual emotional
function
Compulsive use 0.48**
0.11 0.01 0.05
Withdrawal 0.51**
0.12 0.07 0.17
Tolerance 0.45**
0.22 0.10 0.04
Time management
problem
0.46**
0.01 0.10 0.12
Interpersonal and
health problems
0.49**
0.23*
0.16 0.08
*
P < 0.05.
**
P < 0.01.
1070 S.-M. Li, T.-M. Chung / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 1067–1071

5. correlated with the indexes of the Internet dependence and the Internet abuse, respectively.
In conclusion, the Internet use functions played different roles in the Internet abuse and
dependence.
Although the CIAS was used to measure the index of the addictive dependence and
abuse in this study, we could not exactly group the subjects under the diagnostic categories
of the Internet dependence and Internet abuse. The diagnosis system needs to be further
designed to class the subjects under the dependence group or abuse group and to confirm
the different functions of these two groups.
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