Association between Problematic Internet Use and Sleep Disturbance among Adolescents: The Role of the Child’s Sex

Abstract

Use of the Internet has become an integral part of daily life. Adolescents are especially at a higher risk of developing problematic Internet use (PIU). Although one of the most well-known comorbid conditions of PIU is sleep disturbance, little is known about the sex disparity in this association. This school-based survey in students of grades 7–9 was conducted to estimate the prevalence of PIU and sleep disturbance among Chinese adolescents, to test the association between PIU and sleep disturbance, and to investigate the role of the child’s sex in this association. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used to recruit participants, and two-level logistic regression models were fitted. The mean Internet addiction test score was 37.2 (SD: 13.2), and 15.5% (736) met the criteria for PIU. After adjusting for control variables, problematic Internet users were at a higher risk of sleep disturbance (adjusted odds ratio = 2.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.07–3.19). Sex-stratified analyses also demonstrated that association was greater in girls than boys. In this respect, paying more attention to the sleep patterns of adolescents who report excessive Internet use is recommended, and this early identification may be of practical importance for schools, parents, and adolescents themselves.

Exploring the Effects of Problematic Internet Use on Adolescent Sleep: A Systematic Review

“…While one of the included studies found no significant difference between males and females [ 36 ], another found that problematic internet use was higher for male participants [ 33 ]. On the contrary, three other studies showed that the prevalence of problematic internet use was higher for females [ 38 , 43 , 44 ]. Based upon the contradictory findings, additional research on the role of the adolescent’s sex could be enlightening; mood and sleep share common genetic ground, have a bidirectional relationship and females are more likely to experience mood disorders [ 64 ], thereby sleep may affected.…”

Effect of Sex on the Association Between Nonmedical Use of Opioids and Sleep Disturbance Among Chinese Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Sleep quality and disturbances over the past month were assessed by the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The Chinese version of the PSQI has been validated [37] and has been extensively used [8,38] with Chinese adolescents. The survey assessed the 19-item PSQI, which consists of seven components containing subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance, use of sleep medications, and daytime dysfunction.…”

Patologías asociadas al uso problemático de internet. Una revisión sistemática y metaanálisis en WOS y Scopus

“…El trastorno del sueño se ha estudiado desde diferentes perspectivas que abordan su vinculación con un UPI (Thomée, Härenstam y Hagberg, 2012;Park, 2014;Demirci, Akgönül y Akpinar, 2015;Kim et al, 2016;Tan et al, 2016;Li et al, 2017;De Vries et al, 2018;Do y Lee, 2018;Guo et al, 2018;Herlache, Lang DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22201/iibi.24488321xe.2020.82.58118 y Krizan, 2018; Kitazawa et al, 2018;Park et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2018;Kojima et al, 2019). El instrumento principal para su análisis ha sido mayoritariamente la Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (50 %).…”