Internet Addiction: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Research for the Last Decade

In the last decade, Internet usage has grown tremendously on a global scale. The increasing popularity and frequency of Internet use has led to an increasing number of reports highlighting the potential negative consequences of overuse. Over the last decade, research into Internet addiction has proliferated. This paper reviews the existing 68 epidemiological studies of Internet addiction that (i) contain quantitative empirical data, (ii) have been published after 2000, (iii) include an analysis relating to Internet addiction, (iv) include a minimum of 1000 participants, and (v) provide a full-text article published in English using the database Web of Science. Assessment tools and conceptualisations,…