ReviewCurrent opinion in behavioral sciences2022
Prevalence of problematic Internet use during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Review in Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Problematic Media Use among Children up to the Age of 10: A Systematic Literature Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Not All Screen Use is Equal: Shifting the Focus from Screen Time to Problematic Use in Child and Adolescent Well-Being Research.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Association between Internet addiction and mental health problems among Chinese adolescents in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era: a propensity score matching study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Loneliness, problematic digital media use, and nutritional-metabolic vulnerability in adolescents from single-parent households: an integrative review of eating- and sleep-related pathways.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- The Impact of Prolonged Stress of COVID-19 Pandemic and Earthquakes on Internet-Based Addictive Behaviour and Quality of Life in Croatia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Q-single: Linking functional impairment to problematic internet use through a single-question approach.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Excessive internet use among Finnish young people between 2017 and 2021 and the effect of COVID-19.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Dissociation.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Lifestyle Habits Related to Internet Use in Adolescents: Relationships between Wellness, Happiness, and Mental Health.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effects of Long COVID on Psycho-Physical Conditions in the Italian Population: A Statistical and Large Language Model Combined Description.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
- Emotional and Behavioural Factors Predisposing to Internet Addiction: The Smartphone Distraction among Italian High School Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Internet Use and Effects on Mental Well-being During the Lockdown Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Younger Versus Older Adults: Observational Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Internet Addiction and Psychological Distress: Can Social Networking Site Addiction Affect Body Uneasiness Across Gender? A Mediation Model.Europe's journal of psychology · 2024Article
- Understanding University Students' Perspectives towards Digital Tools for Mental Health Support: A Cross-country Study.Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2024Article
- Editorial: The impact of COVID-19 on internet addiction, suicidal behavior, and study behavior in adolescents in various cultural contexts.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The relationship between problematic internet use and psychological distress in older Chinese teachers (40+) during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: three cross-sectional studies.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Problematic internet use in emerging adulthood to escape from maternal helicopter parenting: defensive functioning as a mediating mechanism.Research in psychotherapy (Milano) · 2023Article
- Problematic Internet Use in adolescents: New psychometric evidence for the Spanish short form of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
- Mental Health and COVID-19 in University Students: Findings from a Qualitative, Comparative Study in Italy and the UK.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Factors affecting academic performance of college students in China during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present paper reviews recent studies on problematic Internet use (PIU) prevalence before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Several pre-pandemic meta-analyses reported PIU prevalence estimates ranging from 6% to 9.7%. Experts in the field of online addictions speculated that PIU would increase during the pandemic because of increased time spent on the Internet. However, it is still unclear if increased time on the Internet resulted in higher PIU prevalence estimates during the pandemic. Prevalence estimates differed greatly across studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Possible inconsistencies are outlined together with future directions for PIU prevalence studies.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.