Online activities, prevalence of Internet addiction and risk factors related to family and school among adolescents in China

Aims: To investigate the online activities, prevalence of Internet Addiction in relation to demographic characteristics and risk factors related to family and school among adolescents. Methods: A total of 6468 10–18year old adolescents recruited from local schools in Guangzhou, China were selected by adopting multi-stage stratified random sampling (female/male: 2886/3582; mean age:13.78±2.43). Participants completed a structured questionnaire. Results: The overall prevalence of Internet Addiction was 26.50%, with severe addiction being 0.96%. Internet Addiction was higher among males than females (30.6% versus 21.2%). Older grade students reported more Internet addiction rate (χ2=431.25, P