Prevalence of internet addiction in girls and a comparison of addicted and non-addicted girls in loneli-- ness’, self-esteem and social skills

The current study attempts to investigate the preva-- lence of Internet addiction among high-school girls in Tehran. Another goal is to determine if female Internet addicts in Tehran show the same problems as addicts in other countries, such as more loneliness, and lower self- esteem and social skills. A total of 939 high-school girls in three grades and three fields from five areas of Tehran were selected using cluster sampling. They responded to four measures; namely, Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Young, 1998), UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (1965), and Matson Evalu-- ation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY; 1983). Four hundred and thirty five girls were Internet users. Based on the score obtained in IAT, 14 Internet addicts (IA) were recognized (scoring 70-100 in IAT), which shows a prevalence of 3.2% for Internet addiction among high-school girls in Tehran. Using the demographics, 14 moderate users (MU; scoring 0-40 in IAT), and 14 non- users (NU) were matched with the IA. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the three groups in loneliness and self-esteem. Using an exploratory factor analysis, five factors were derived for the Farsi version of MESSY, namely, altruistic behaviors, inappropriate so-- cial behaviors, recalcitrance, fear of relations, and domi-- nance. The three groups showed no significant difference in altruistic behaviors, fear of relations, and dominance. However, the IA group showed significantly more inap-- propriate social behaviors than the MU and the NU, and more recalcitrance than the MU.