Background: A psychological disorder called 'Internet addiction' has newly emerged along with a dramatic increase of worldwide Internet use. However, few studies have used population-level samples nor taken into account contextual factors on Internet addiction.
Methods and findings: We identified 57,857 middle and high school students (13-18 year olds) from a Korean nationally representative survey, which was surveyed in 2009. To identify associated factors with addictive Internet use, two-level multilevel regression models were fitted with individual-level responses (1st level) nested within schools (2nd level) to estimate associations of individual and school characteristics simultaneously. Gender differences of addictive Internet use were estimated with the regression model stratified by gender. Significant associations were found between addictive Internet use and school grade, parental education, alcohol use, tobacco use, and substance use. Female students in girls' schools were more likely to use Internet addictively than those in coeducational schools. Our results also revealed significant gender differences of addictive Internet use in its associated individual- and school-level factors.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that multilevel risk factors along with gender differences should be considered to protect adolescents from addictive Internet use.