The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between parent-children communication and addiction to internet/smartphones in high school students. This study surveys the extents of addiction to internet and smarthphones of different three groups classified by school years and scholastic achievements. It also surveys the relationship between the parent-children communication and addiction to internet and smartphones.
In order to carry out this study, questionnaires were distributed and collected to 322 academic high school students. Main questions indicate internet addiction index, smartphones addiction index and parent-children communication index. The survey data were analyzed on the basis of SPSS 20.0 and “Multivariate Analysis of Variance(MANOVA)”.
The results of this study are summarized as follows:
First, the MANOVA outcome reveals that different three groups by school years have no significant difference in the extent of addiction to internet, whereas different groups by school years make a certain difference in the extent of addiction to smartphones. Analyzing the subordinate factors, we can affirm the tendency that first grade students show much more extent of morbid immersion than third grade students.
Second, different three groups by scholastic achievements have no significant difference in the extent of addiction to internet and addiction to smartphones.
Third, summarizing the analysis on the correlation between parent-children communication and addiction to internet/smartphones, a negative correlation is established between the extent of parent-children communication and the extent of addiction to internet. Another negative correlation is confirmed between the extent of parent-children communication and the extent of addiction to smartphones. The correlation between addiction to internet and smartphones, however, indicates a positive relationship. This means the more intensely addicted to internet, the more intensely addicted to smartphones, are the high school students and juveniles, and vice versa.
This study suggests that if the communication between parent and children is not active and amicable, the high school students are more intensively addicted to internet and smartphones. In conclusion, we can assert that parent -children communication bears, at least, indirect effects on the juvenile addiction to internet/smartphones.
The follow-up studies on the addicted groups, which are sampled in more elaborate and specialized way, can suggest much more diverse and efficient countermeasures to internet/smartphones addiction.