Internet cafe addiction of Taiwanese adolescents

With the recent vigorous development, the Internet has become a part of life. And the Internet cafe has become an emerging industry under this new wave of Internet heat. However, the Internet cafe has also brought about many unexpected social problems and negative effects on society in Taiwan. For example, Internet cafe addiction ( or pathological use) is a particular phenomenon derived from Internet cafe in Taiwan. But currently there are just a few scholars who attend to this problem. This study focuses mainly on the phenomenon of Internet cafe addiction among adolescents in Taiwan, the Internet cafe patronage behavior, and the cause of this phenomenon. Result of a questionnaire survey indicate that a significant difference exists between male and female adolescent in the following two aspects: the stay hours for each visit in Internet cafe and Internet cafe addiction scores. Males' stay hours in Internet cafe are longer than females', and males also get higher Internet cafe addiction scores than females. The results also indicate that participants' degree of self-esteem and support from their social network can account for 30% of variance of Internet cafe addiction. Further, the results also suggest that social support is positively related to Internet cafe addiction score, whereas a negative relationship between self-esteem and Internet cafe addiction score is observed.