The Relationship Between Internet-use Behavior and Mental Health in Youth

Introduction: WHO defines youth as 15-24 years age group. At this stage, the brain is still under development, with high impulsiveness, being fond of stimulation and yearning for peer life. Compared with traditional interpersonal interaction, modern youths use the Internet as a main interpersonal interaction platform and conduct lots of leisure activities on the Internet. Poor cognitive emotion regulation strategies and personal traits may extend to new types of mental health issues; and are associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal/self-injurious behaviors, and cyberbullying.

Objectives: (1) To investigate whether emotion regulation strategies while facing stressful events are highly related to with cyberbullying, social media, and internet gaming disorder. (2) To investigate the relation between cyberbullying and depression, anxiety, suicide/self-injury among Taiwanese youths. (3) To investigate the probability of cyberbullying, social media addiction, and internet gaming disorder occurring at the same time.

Method: This cross-sectional study recruits cases of youths from 15 to 24 years old and collects data through questionnaires survey. In addition to collection of basic data, Internet using habits, and medical history, self-rated questionnaires include Suicide/Self-Injury Ideation Questionnaire, The Beck Depression Inventory 2nd Edition, Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children-Taiwan version, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Cyberbullying Questionnaire, and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Mental Health Issue

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 50

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Taipei, Taiwan
    • National Taiwan University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Aged from 15 to 24 years old. Healthy youths and adults recruited publicly. Patients with major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, or Adjustment disorder according to DSM-V recruited from outpatient clinic, emergency ward and day care ward of psychiatry department in National Taiwan University Hospital.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Control group

• Able to understand the content of all questionnaires
• Healthy youths aged 15-20 years old and adults aged 20-24 years old

Experimental group

• Able to understand the content of all questionnaires
• Youths aged 15-20 years old and adults aged 20-24 years old
• Diagnosed with major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, or Adjustment disorder according to DSM-V

Exclusion Criteria:

• Illiterate or unable to understand the content of the questionnaires
• Diagnosed with organic brain injury, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder according to DSM-V

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Control Group; Healthy youths and adults aged 15-24 years old.
Experimental Group; Youths and adults aged 15-24 years old with diagnosis of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, or Adjustment disorder according to DSM-V.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Cyberbullying Questionnaire	Suppose the subject was the victimization/perpetrators of cyber-bullying or in the past 2 months, and the cyber-bullying-related experience and feeling in school. The main results were qualitative descriptions and would not apply to statistical analysis.	Up to 8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II)	The BDI-II is a 21-item self-report measure that taps major depression symptoms according to diagnostic criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. Items are summed to create a total score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of depression.	Up to 2 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Wei-ting Ko, MS, National Taiwan University Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 8, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 15, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 27, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 15, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 21, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): February 29, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 29, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 21, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: depression; mental health; anxiety; youth; emotional regulation; cyberbullying; internet gaming disorder; social media addiction; suicide/self-injury
• Other Study ID Numbers: 202111069RINB

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No