Educational Needs for Internet Addiction in Middle School Students of Korea

중학교 청소년의 인터넷 중독 관련 교육 요구

Purpose: Internet addiction is a newly recognized problem in the adolescents. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the educational needs for Internet addiction in middle school students of Korea. Method: The subjects of this study were 450 middle school students. The data were collected from open and structured questionnaire about the educational needs for Internet addiction. Result: As a result of content analysis of educational needs for Internet addiction, 9 domains and 19 themes were categorized from 542 statements. 9 Domains are : Definition, Etiology, Status, Process, Diagnosis, Influence, Coping and Prevention of Internet Addiction and General Information of Internet Use. These results were revealed that middle school students had comprehensive education needs for Internet Addiction. Also, there were the difference of need contents and frequency between school boy and girl students. Most of students had high educational needs for Internet addiction based on school health care program. Conclusion: It would be necessary to develop on Internet addiction prevention program for adolescents concerning these findings. In the future, there should be study to identify the psychological characteristics of adolescent associated with Internet addiction.