CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Volume 12, Number 6, 2009 ORIGINAL ARTICLES

ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089=cpb.2009.0060

Instant Messaging Addiction among Teenagers in China:

Shyness, Alienation, and Academic
Performance Decrement

Hanyun Huang, M.Sc.1 and Louis Leung, Ph.D.2

Abstract

This exploratory research proposes the concept of instant messaging (IM) addiction and examines (a) whether
IM addiction exists among Chinese teenagers and, if so, who the addicts are, what their symptoms are, and to
what extent they are addicted; (b) whether psychological variables such as shyness and alienation can predict IM
use or addiction among teenagers; and (c) whether IM use or IM addiction can impair the academic performance
of teenagers. Using Young’s classic definition of Internet addiction, results of a stratified random sample of 330
teenagers in China in 2007 found 95.8% of participants use IM, and 9.8% of them can be classified as IM addicts.
Factor analysis identified four major IM addiction symptoms among teenagers: preoccupation with IM, loss of
relationships due to overuse, loss of control, and escape. Results also showed that shyness and alienation from
family, peers, and school are significantly and positively associated with levels of IM addiction. As expected,
both the level of IM use and level of IM addiction are significantly linked to teenagers’ academic performance
decrement.

Introduction synchronous communication Internet applications.3 Leung

Internet and instant messaging addiction
I nstant messaging (IM) is a computer application that
allows synchronous text communication between two or
more people through the Internet. IM has penetrated young
peoples’ lives, and its use continues to grow. Griffiths pro-
posed the concept of ‘‘technological addiction,’’ which is
nonchemical but behavioral addiction that involves excessive
human–machine interaction.1 Using pathological gambling as
a model, Young proposed that Internet addiction could be
defined as an impulse-control disorder, which does not in-
volve an intoxicant.2 She characterized Internet addiction as
staying online for pleasure, largely in chat rooms, on an av-
erage of 38 hours or more per week, and concluded that In-
ternet addiction can shatter families, relationships, and
careers. Past studies examining Internet addiction have found
a significantly higher use of synchronous communication
Internet applications, like IM, by Internet-dependent students
compared to that of nondependent students. Scherer’s re-
search indicated that Internet-dependent students are almost
three times more likely than nondependent students to use
also found that being emotionally open on the Internet and
heavy use of ICQ are the most influential criteria in predicting
the Net generation’s problematic use of the Internet.4 How-
ever, most of these studies conceptualized Internet addiction
as a unidimensional construct; almost no research has been
conducted on IM addiction from a multidimensional symp-
tomatic perspective. Therefore, this exploratory study exam-
ines IM addiction among teenagers:
RQ1: What IM addiction symptoms can be identified among
teenagers in China?
H1: Those who are heavy users of IM tend to be IM addicts.
Shyness, alienation, and IM use
Shyness is a form of social anxiety that interferes with a
person’s ability to participate in social situations.5 At its core
is the anxiety of being evaluated by others and consequently
rejected.6 Research shows that shy people feel much less
inhibited in social interaction online than they do offline,

1
Ph.D. student, School of Journalism & Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
2
Director, Center for Communication Research, School of Journalism & Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin,
Hong Kong.

675
676
and consequently they are able to form a number of online
relationships.7,8 Chak and Leung indicated that the higher the
tendency of being addicted to the Internet, the shyer the
person is, and people who are addicted to the Internet
make intense and frequent use of the Internet, especially for
online communication via e-mail, ICQ, and online games.9
Alienation refers to a sense of social estrangement, an ab-
sence of the social support of meaningful social connection,
whereas to be alienated means to lack a sense of belonging, to
feel cut off from family, school, and friends.10,11 One study
found that Internet has the potential to create a sense of
community in cyberspace, which could be attractive for
alienated youth seeking alternative socialization sources.12 In
IM, people can talk not only to friends but also to strangers.
People can also make new friends through IM. Thus, teen-
agers who feel alienated from family, friends, and school
might tend to seek social support or friendship online
through IM. Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:
H2a: Teenagers who score high in shyness tend to be heavy
users of IM.
H2b: Teenagers who score high in shyness tend to be more
dependent on IM.
H3a: Teenagers who score high in alienation tend to be heavy
users of IM.
H3b: Teenagers who score high in alienation tend to be more
dependent on IM.
Academic performance
Scherer and Bost surveyed 531 students about their Inter-
net use and found that 13% of the sample reported Internet
use interferes with their academic work, professional per-
formance, or social lives.13 Kubey et al. revealed that heavy
leisure Internet use is highly correlated with impaired aca-
demic performance, particularly when the use is with syn-
chronous communication applications.14 The researchers
argued that the unique social qualities of such applications
represent a most significant utility for lonely individuals who
can be with friends at any time, resulting in many users
staying up late at night and feeling tired the next day, which
in turn affects their academic performances. As a result, it is
reasonable to predict the following:
H4: Teenagers who are heavy users of IM tend to show high
academic performance decrement.
H5: Teenagers who show a high level of IM addiction tend to
show high academic performance decrement.
In addition to testing the hypotheses, we also asked these
questions:
RQ2: How can shyness, alienation, level of IM use, online
experience, and demographics discriminate IM addicts from
nonaddicts?
RQ3: How can shyness, alienation, IM addiction symptoms,
online experience, and demographics predict level of IM use?
RQ4: How can shyness, alienation, level of IM use, online
experience, and demographics predict level of IM addiction?
RQ5: How can shyness, alienation, IM addiction symptoms,
level of IM use, and demographics predict academic perfor-
mance decrement?
HUANG AND LEUNG
Methods
Participants and sampling procedure
Data were gathered from a stratified random sample of
students from the Xiamen Foreign Language School in China.
This school is one of the typical public middle schools in
Fujian Province. Because middle schools in China are gener-
ally similar in administrative structure and social makeup,
the population of the Xiamen Foreign Language School may
be considered representative of teenagers in urban China
today. Students in grades 7 through 12 (ages 12–19) were
randomly selected. A total of 388 questionnaires were dis-
tributed on November 22, 2007, and 330 were returned. The
response rate was 85.1%. Of the 330 students who partici-
pated, 35.1% were male. The mean age of the sample was
14.48 years.
Measures
IM addiction. Young’s 8-item questionnaire and 20-item
Internet Addiction Test were adapted to assess teenagers’
feelings about IM use.2,15 The 8 items, all yes-or-no questions,
were used to classify addicts and nonaddicts, and the 20 items
were used to assess the level of IM addiction and especially
the symptoms of IM addiction. According to Young’s classic
definition of Internet addiction, people were considered ad-
dicted when answering yes to 5 (or more) of the 8 questions.2
Young stated that the cutoff score of 5 was consistent with the
number of criteria used for pathological gambling and was
seen as an adequate number of criteria to differentiate normal
from pathological addictive Internet use.2 Cronbach’s alpha
of the 8-item scale was 0.73 and of the 20-item scale was 0.91.
Level of IM use. Respondents were asked four close-
ended questions about their time spent and frequency of IM
use. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.76.
Shyness. A revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale16 with
13 items was used in a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from
1, strongly disagree, to 5, strongly agree. Cronbach’s alpha was
0.86.
Alienation. We included a set of items measuring alien-
ation from family, peers, and school based largely on items
used in the American Drug and Alcohol Survey, which is a
widely used survey instrument studying adolescent deviant
behavior.17 Responses, on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranged
from 1, never, to 5, always, on three dimensions, with 11
statements. Cronbach’s alphas for the three dimensions,
alienation from family, alienation from peers, and alienation
from school, were 0.87, 0.70, and 0.83 respectively.
Academic performance decrement. A scale designed by
Kubey et al. was adapted to assess students’ academic im-
pairment due to Internet use.14 Participants answered the
following three questions on a 5-point Likert-type scale
ranging from 1, never, to 5, always: (1) How often has your
schoolwork been hurt because of the time you spend on IM?
(2) How often did you sleep late because of using IM? (3)
How often did you feel too tired to go to school the next day
because you spent too much time on IM the previous night?
Cronbach’s alpha was 0.68.
IM ADDICTION 677

Results p < 0.001, and level of IM addiction r(301) ¼ 0.59, p < 0.001.
H4 and H5 were fully supported.
The majority of participants (95.8%; n ¼ 316) indicated that
they use IM regularly. Only 4.2% indicated that they had
Discriminant analysis between addicts
never used IM before.
and nonaddicts of IM
IM addiction among teenagers Discriminant analysis shows that IM addicts were heavy
users of IM and had longer years of online experience; they
Using the classic definition of Internet addiction by Young,
tended to be shyer and more alienated from peers, school,
9.7% of the teenagers in our sample were classified as IM
and family. The function correctly classified 71.1% of the
addicts. Independent sample t tests were performed to ex-
cases. The result further supported H1.
amine possible differences in the levels of IM use between
addicts and nonaddicts. The results show that IM addicts
spend significantly more hours (2.24 vs. 1.79 hr) every week Predicting level of IM use and level of IM addiction
on IM. Although they do not use IM significantly more in As shown in Table 1, we can see that heavy users of IM
frequency, they spend significantly longer hours (2.53 vs. tended to lose control easily and neglect other obligations,
2.09 hr per session) each time they use it. Therefore, H1 is resulting in complaints from family and friends. They tended
partially supported. to be younger, less alienated from peers, and had longer years
of Internet use compared to normal users. On a similar re-
IM addiction symptoms among teenagers gression analysis, using IM addiction as the dependent vari-
The principle components factor analysis yielded four IM able, results in Table 1 showed that teenagers suffering from
addiction symptoms among teenagers, explaining 65.06% of heavy IM addiction tended to be heavy users of IM; had
the total variance. Factor 1, preoccupation with IM (a ¼ 0.82), longer years of IM use; and were older, shyer, and more
determined if the teenagers were preoccupied with IM: the alienated from peers.
teenagers act annoyed when they are interrupted during
online chats; they feel preoccupied by online chatting and Hierarchical regression on academic
fantasize about chatting online when offline; they feel de- performance decrement
pressed and moody when they cannot chat online; they To examine the relative influence of various predictors on
sacrifice sleep to chat online; and they need to increase IM academic performance decrement, stepwise regression was
time to achieve satisfaction. Factor 2, loss of relationships conducted. Results in Table 2 show that four IM addiction
due to overuse of IM (a ¼ 0.77), revealed that addicted symptoms were the strongest predictors for academic per-
teenagers hide their time spent on chatting online; try to cut formance decrement. Results also indicate that teenagers
down their use but fail; choose to spend more time chatting who suffered more from academic performance decrement
online than going out with friends; and jeopardize friend-
ships or educational opportunities because of online chat-
ting. Factor 3, loss of control (a ¼ 0.73), illustrated that Table 1. Regression Analysis for Level of Instant
teenagers cannot control the time they spend on IM. They Messaging (IM) Use and Addiction
always spend more time on IM than they intend; and they
Level of IM Level of IM
neglect other responsibilities and obligations, resulting in
use addiction
complaint from family and friends. Factor 4, escape
(a ¼ 0.68), indicated that teenagers use IM as an alternative Predictors b B
way to escape from responsibilities; they chat online when
they are in a bad mood, and they always anticipate chatting Demographics
online again. Age
0.22*** 0.20**
Gender (male ¼ 1) 0.09 0.02
Hypothesis testing IM addiction symptom
Preoccupation by IM 0.05 —
Correlation results show that the relationship between Loss of control 0.38*** —
teenagers’ shyness and their level of IM use was not signifi- Loss of relationship
0.02 —
cant. In contrast, the relationship between shyness and level due to overuse
of IM addiction was significantly and positively correlated, Escape 0.13 —
r(292) ¼ 0.17, p < 0.01. H2a was rejected, while H2b was ac- Shyness
0.05 0.12*
cepted. Alienation
Results show that no significant correlations were found Alienation from family
0.01 0.06
between the level of IM use and alienation from family, Alienation from peers
0.16* 0.29***
Alienation from school 0.09
0.02
friends and peers, and school. However, the level of IM ad-
diction was significantly and positively correlated to all three Level of IM use — 0.29***
Online Experience
alienation variables: alienation from family, r(302) ¼ 0.16,
Years on Internet 0.15*
0.10
p < 0.01; alienation from peers and friends, r(301) ¼ 0.25, Years on IM 0.11 0.17*
p < 0.001; and alienation from school, r(302) ¼ 0.23, p < 0.001.
R2 0.30 0.28
H3a was rejected, while H3b was accepted. Final adjusted R2 0.27 0.26
Academic performance decrement was also significantly
and positively linked to level of IM use, r(312) ¼ 0.25, *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.
678 HUANG AND LEUNG

Table 2. Hierarchical Regression of Demographics, demic performance decrement, indicating that teenagers
Addiction Symptoms, Shyness, Alienation, Level who showed more severe symptoms in IM addiction were
of Use, and Online Experience on Academic more likely to suffer from academic performance decrement.
Performance Decrement This result emphasizes the harmful effects of IM addiction
Predictors b on teenagers’ academic performance and suggests that if
teenagers exhibit any of the IM addiction symptoms, teach-
Block 1: Demographics ers and parents should pay attention to their academic
Gender (male ¼ 1)
0.01 performance.
Age 0.24***
Adjusted R2 0.15*** Shyness, alienation, and IM use
Block 2: Addiction symptom
Preoccupation by IM 0.14* Shyness was a significant predictor for level of IM addic-
Loss of control 0.35*** tion. Shyness was also a significant factor to discriminate
Loss of relationship due to overuse 0.16** between IM addicts and nonaddicts. These findings are con-
Escape 0.10* sistent with and reinforce previous research that the higher
Change in adjusted R2 0.41*** the tendency of to be addicted to the Internet, the shyer the
Incremental adjusted R2 0.56 person is; and people who are addicted to the Internet make
Block 3: Psychology variables intense and frequent use of it, especially for online commu-
Shyness 0.12** nication via ICQ.9
Alienation from family
0.01 All three dimensions of the construct alienation showed
Alienation from peers 0.02 significant and positive correlations with level of IM addic-
Alienation from school 0.00 tion and were significant predictors to discriminate IM ad-
Change in adjusted R2 0.01*
dicts and nonaddicts. Such a result indicates that teenagers
Incremental adjusted R2 0.57
who suffered alienation from family, peers, and school ten-
Block 4: Level of use 0.15**
ded to seek affection, friendship, and social support through
Change in adjusted R2 0.02**
Incremental adjusted R2 0.59 IM. It is interesting to note that alienation from peers was a
significant but negative predictor for level of IM use, while
Block 5: Online experience
Years on Internet 0.02 alienation from peers was a significant and positive predictor
Years on IM 0.02 for level of IM addiction. One possible explanation might be
Change in adjusted R2 0.00 that those who were not alienated from peers would com-
Final adjusted R2 0.59 municate frequently with their peers through IM, while
heavy IM addicts might be those who were alienated from
Note: Figures are standardized beta coefficients from final regres- peers and were eager to seek friendship through online
sion equations with all blocks of variables included for the entire
sample. IM, instant messaging. chatting with strangers.
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.
IM use and academic performance decrement
tended to be shyer and older, to exhibit more severe IM Both the level of IM use and level of IM addiction have
addiction symptoms, and to be heavy users of IM. significant and positive bivariate correlations with academic
performance decrement. These findings suggest that teenag-
Conclusions and Discussion ers’ IM use affected their academic performance. Therefore,
parents and teachers should pay close attention and provide
Past research has been investigating whether or not an
proper guidance or control for teenagers’ IM use.
individual is addicted to the Internet and the extent to which
the person is addicted. To expand this line of research,
Demographics and IM use
this study examined the multidimensional addiction symp-
toms and psychological variables to further explore their Age was a significant negative predictor for level of IM use
relationships to IM behavioral patterns and academic per- and a significant positive predictor for level of addiction and
formance. academic performance decrement. These findings suggest
that the younger the teenagers and the less self-disciplined
IM addiction symptoms they were, the more they would use IM. Meanwhile, older
teenagers were more mature and had more things to share
Teenagers addicted to IM experience four major IM ad-
with friends, such as relationships, gossip, and issues that are
diction symptoms, which are consistent with most of the
difficult to talk about face to face, so they might be more
symptoms proposed by the American Psychiatric Association
addicted to IM. This might have a negative impact on aca-
to identify substance dependence.18 Among the four symp-
demic performance. As expected, these results suggest that
toms, loss of control was a significant factor to predict level of
teachers and parents should pay more attention to older
IM use and was the most powerful variable to predict aca-
teenagers because they may be most vulnerable to IM ad-
demic performance decrement. This indicates that teenage
diction.
addicts were less self-disciplined, could not control the time
spent on IM, and neglected their homework or duties, re-
Disclosure Statement
sulting in academic performance decrement.
The four addiction symptoms formed the most powerful No competing financial interests exist. An earlier version of
group in hierarchical regression to predict teenagers’ aca- this research was presented at the Association for Education
IM ADDICTION
in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2008 Con-
vention, Chicago, IL, August 6–9, 2008.
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Address correspondence to:
Hanyun Huang
School of Journalism & Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, N.T.
Hong Kong
E-mail: huanghanyun@gmail.com