2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

330837
Internet Game Overflow and Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Dakyung Min, BA, Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)
Hanna Lee, Ph.D., University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
In Han Song, PhD, Institute of Convergence Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)

Background:

Recently in Korea, it has been argued that internet game overflow (IGO) causes negative effects on mental health among adolescents. Especially, suicide has been known as one of the most serious mental health problems in Korea. This study is to examine the effect of IGO on suicidal ideation among adolescents, and to examine the relationship among IGO, depressive mood, and suicidal ideation by analyzing the mediating effect of depressive mood in the relationship between IGO and suicidal ideation.

Methods:

For this purpose, we analyzed the 2012 dataset from the Korea Children and Youth Mental Health Promotion Study (N=8,745) by the National Youth Policy Institute. Z mediation analysis was used to examine the mediating effect of depressive mood in the relationship betwen IGO and suicide ideation.

Results:

The results showed that, first, about 5.6% of adolescents were included in the risky group depending on the criteria of the measurement. Second, IGO has a statistically significant effect on suicide ideation when considering the two variables only. Third, however, as depressive mood was found to have a complete mediating effect in the relationship between IGO and suicidal ideation, IGO increases suicidal ideation by increasing depressive mood.

Conclusion:

As policy and practice implications, the necessity of intervention to reduce IGO and mental health problems among adolescents was discussed.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Analyze the effect of Internet Game Overflow on suicidal ideation among adolescents Identify the relationship among internet game overflow, depressive mood, and suicidal ideation

Keyword(s): Suicide, Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I'm associate professor in health & mental health at Yonsei University, and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Technology & Mental Health at Yonsei University. The topic of this paper is one of my center's main field.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4327.0: Suicide Prevention