1. Title of the project : Relationship between internet addiction, attachment styles and psychological morbidity with degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students: A cross-sectional study 2. Type of Study : Cross-sectional, observational study 3. Aims & objectives (hypotheses if applicable) : Aim: To study the relationship between internet addiction, attachment styles and psychological morbidity with degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students Objectives: To study the relationship between internet addiction and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students To study the relationship between negative attachment styles and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students To study the relationship between psychological morbidity and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students Hyptheses: There will be no significant relationship between internet addiction and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students There will be no significant relationship between negative attachment styles and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students There will be no significant relationship between psychological morbidity and degree of involvement in online romantic relationships among college students 4. Justification for study (whether of national significance with rationale) : Online relationships as a way of relating to others is a relatively new phenomenon and only two decades old. It has been on a rise with the increasing use of internet based technologies, and individuals being the social creatures they are tend to form online relationships in much the same way as they would form offline relationships. College students are likely to form online romantic relationships more as compared to other age groups, and hence it is important to study this aspect in the student population. Previous studies have looked at the link between internet addiction in general with attachment style, and with psychopathology independently. No study has looked at all of these variables-attachment style, internet addiction and psychological morbidity collectively, in the context of online romantic relationships. How these variables play out with respect to college students having online romantic relationships is an area which consists of very few studies currently, especially in the Indian context. The study will help to see whether college students with online romantic relationships remain within the thresholds of normal level of internet use, and have sound psychological health or by the virtue of having such relationships, they tend to have pathological internet use amounting to addiction and also develop psychological problems. Furthermore, It can help mental health professionals attain a better understanding of romantic relationships in cyberspace and its linkages to possible psychopathology and aid in planning interventions. 5. Departments involved : Clinical Psychology 6. Study period : August 2018- April 2019 7. Sample size : 400 8. Materials and methods : Materials Socio-demographic proforma Three subscales (Breadth, Depth and Commitment) from Levels of development in online relationships scale (Parks & Floyd, 1996) Chen Internet Addiction Scale (Chen et al., 2003) Relationships Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) Self-report questionnaire (SRQ-20) (WHO, 1994) Methods Purposive sampling Sample – 400 students studying in different constituent, professional colleges of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, in the age range of 18-25 years, either gender (males, females) will be recruited for the study. a) Inclusion and exclusion criteria : Inclusion criteria : - Age (18-25 years)
- Both males and females
- Those who can read and write in English
- Having access to and using internet
b) Biological materials required (type - blood, tissue etc and quantity) : Not applicable c) Statistical methods : Descriptive and Inferential statistics 9. Detailed description of procedure / processes: Various institutions of Manipal University will be approached. Clearance from Institutional Ethics Committee will be obtained. Approaching and fixing of appointments with class coordinators for collecting data Students who meet the inclusion criteria will be approached, briefed and consent will be obtained. Confidentiality will be assured. Those not having access to/using the internet will be excluded The administration will be done by meeting the students in a classroom setting, briefing them, handing them the questionnaires and collecting the same on the spot. This will be done till the adequate sample size is reached, with each of the questionnaires and forms being checked and corrected for missing items and information as soon as they are filled in by the participant. Data collected will be coded and tabulated, and will be subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. 10. Outcome measures: Degree of involvement in online romantic relationship, internet addiction, attachment style and psychological morbidity. 11. Potential risks and benefits : Nil 12. Ethical considerations and methods to address issues : Confidentiality will be maintained so as to avoid any misuse of data. 13. Budget (give details) and proposed funding source : Self-funded 14. Review of literature (within 1000 words) : Internet as a social technology is creating a new genre of interpersonal relationships. (Merkle, 2000). Internet mediated relationships challenge proximity as a pre-requisite to relationship formation and the range and variety of people available to form relationships which is greatly enhanced with the use of the Internet as a method of communication. (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). College students are also prone to developing dependence on the internet. This can be attributed to several factors such as availability of time, ease of use, unlimited access to the Internet, psychological and developmental characteristics of young adulthood, limited or no parental supervision, as a route of escape from exam stress, etc. (Kandell, 1998). Young (1998) defined internet addiction as, “an individual’s inability to control his or her use of the internet, which eventually causes psychological, social, school, and/or work difficulties in a person’s life.†Research studies in the Western and Asian contexts suggest that the risk of Internet addiction among young people is increasing. (Daniel , Shek , Rachel , Sun & Lu, 2013). Krishnamurthy & Chetlapali (2015) conducted a study to find out internet addiction and its risk factors among 515 college students. Out of 515, 130 had online friendships out of which 74 were addicted, and 312 had online relationships out of which 166 had internet addiction also. Overall, 57% were found to have normal patterns of use, 35% were mildly addicted and 8% were moderately addicted. Internet use may be beneficial when kept to ’normal’ levels, however high levels of internet use which interfere with daily life have been linked to a range of problems, including decreased psychosocial well-being, relationship breakdown and neglect of domestic, academic and work responsibilities.(Beard 2002; Weiser 2001; Widyanto & McMurran 2004; Yao-Guo, Lin-Yan, & Feng-Lin 2006; Young 1998). The aforementioned factors can further predispose individuals towards developing psychological problems, especially anxiety and depression. A study by Goel et al. (2013) on students aged 16 to 18 years found that those with excessive internet use had high scores on anxiety, depression, and mixed anxiety and depression. Attachment theory has often been used as a framework to study interpersonal interaction and relationships. While individuals’ attachment style differences have been found to influence the extent to which people engage in a variety of behaviors in close, face-to-face relationships, the role of attachment style in relationships developed via computer-mediated communication is another aspect which is relevant in today’s day and age. (Ye, 2007). Eichenberg et al. (2017) found that pathological Internet use was a function of insecure attachment and limited interpersonal relationships. |