JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the ever-growing and technologically advancing world, an increasing amount of social interaction takes place online. With this change, loneliness is becoming an unprecedented societal issue, making youth more susceptible to various physical and mental health problems. This societal change also influences the dynamics of addiction.

Objective:

Employing the cognitive discrepancy loneliness model, this study provides a social psychological perspective on youth addictions.

Methods:

A comprehensive survey collected data from American (N=1,212, M=20.05, SD=3.19, 50.17% female), South Korean (N=1,192, M=20.61, SD=3.24, 50.42% female) and Finnish (N=1,200, M=21.29, SD=2.85, 50.00% female) youths aged 15–25. Perceived loneliness was assessed with the Three-Item Loneliness scale. Three addictive behaviors were measured, including excessive alcohol use, compulsive Internet use, and problem gambling. Two separate models using linear regression analyses were estimated for each country to examine the association between perceived loneliness and addiction.

Results:

Loneliness was found to be significantly related to only compulsive Internet use among youth in all three countries (P<.001 in the US, South Korea, and Finland). In the South Korean sample, the association remained significant with excessive alcohol use (P<.001) and problem gambling (P<.001), even after controlling for potentially confounding psychological variables.

Conclusions:

The findings reveal existing differences between youths who spend excessive amounts of time online and those who engage in other types of addictive behaviors. Experiencing loneliness seems consistently linked to compulsive Internet use across the countries, while different underlying factors may explain other forms of addiction. These findings provide deeper understanding in the mechanisms of youth addiction and can help improve prevention and intervention work, especially in terms of compulsive Internet use.