Excessive and pathological Internet use - Risk-behavior or psychopathology?

Pathological Internet use (but only with respect to gaming) is classified as mental disorder in the ICD-11. However, there is a large group of adolescents showing excessive Internet use, which may rather be considered adolescent risk-behavior. The aim was to test whether pathological and excessive Internet use should be considered as psychopathology or risk-behavior. A representative, cross-sectional sample of 11.110 students from 10 European Union countries was analyzed. Structural equation models, including the factors risk-behavior and psychopathology and the variables excessive and pathological Internet use, were tested against each other. Risk-behavior was operationalized by several risk-behaviors (e.g. drug abuse, truancy, etc). Psychopathology included measures of several mental disorders (e.g. depression, hyperactivity, etc). Excessive Internet use was assessed as the duration and frequency of Internet use. Pathological Internet use was assessed with the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (i.e., presence of addiction criteria). Excessive Internet use loaded on risk-behavior (lambda = 0.484, p < .001) and on psychopathology (lambda = 0.071, p < .007). Pathological Internet use loaded on risk-behavior (lambda = 0.333, p < .001) and on psychopathology (lambda = 0.852, p < .001). Chi-square tests determined that the loadings of excessive Internet use (chi(2) (1) = 81.98, p < .001) were significantly stronger on risk-behavior than psychopathology. Vice versa, pathological Internet use loaded significantly stronger on psychopathology (chi(2) (1) = 107.10, p < .001). The results indicate that pathological Internet use should rather be considered as psychopathology. Excessive Internet use on the other hand, should be classified as adolescent risk-behavior.

Automated summary

The study indicates that pathological internet use should be considered as psychopathology, while excessive internet use should be classified as adolescent risk-behavior.