Award Date

May 2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

Public Health

First Committee Member

Timothy Grigsby

Second Committee Member

Ying Guo

Third Committee Member

Miguel Antonio Fudolig

Fourth Committee Member

Clariana Ramos de Oliveira

Number of Pages

43

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet has become an integral part of daily life, influencing education, work, and recreation. As of 2024, approximately two-thirds of the global population is online, with an estimated one-third of users under the age of 18. Given the potential long-term effects of excessive Internet use on health and well-being, adolescents represent a critical population for monitoring online behaviors. This study used baseline data from the SHARE project and conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to identify patterns of Internet use among a sample of adolescents and the relationship of class membership with mental health outcomes, including Internet addiction, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. The LCA resulted in a four-class solution: “high entertainment use”, “low Internet use”, “gaming-streaming”, and “high Internet use”. Class membership was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, and Internet addiction while membership in the “high Internet use” class was associated with the worst mental health outcomes. Targeted interventions are recommended for adolescents based on their patterns of Internet use, and future research is recommended to focus on age and gender disparities as well as possible moderating factors such as genre of online game and motive for use.

Keywords

high school students; Internet addiction; latent class analysis

Disciplines

Psychology

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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