Prevalence of Internet Addiction among Nursing Students and the Association with their Academic Performance and Mental Health

The objective was to investigate the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) among nursing students and its association with their mental health and academic performance, at king Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah. A descriptive correlation exploratory design was used with 147 females students selected conveniently. A self-administered Arabic version of Young (1995) IA scale and depression scale developed by Radloff (1977) were used to collect data. Almost 2 thirds of the participants (59.6%) were average on-line users compared with 38.4% and 2.1% experiencing both moderate, and sever IA, respectively. More than 2 thirds (64.6%) were experienced with depressive symptoms compared with only 35.4%, who were normal. A significant correlation was found between IA, time spent on the Internet, and depressive symptoms (r=0.335 and r=0.205), respectively. Therefore, conducting an in-service training program of Internet use and promoting a supportive environment of counseling will decrease the psychological morbidity of stress and depression among college students.