Eichenberg et al. (2017): Attachment Style and Internet Addiction: An Online Survey

ABSTRACT

Back­ground: One of the cli­ni­cally rele­vant pro­blems of Inter­net use is the pheno­me­non of Inter­net addic­tion. Con­side­ring the fact that there is ample evi­dence for the rela­ti­ons­hip bet­ween attach­ment style and sub­stance abuse, it stands to rea­son that attach­ment theory can also make an important cont­ri­bu­tion to the under­stan­ding of the patho­ge­ne­sis of Inter­net addic­tion.

Objec­tive:The aim of this study was to examine people’s ten­dency toward patho­lo­gi­cal Inter­net usage in rela­tion to their attach­ment style.

Methods: An online sur­vey was con­duc­ted. Soci­ode­mo­gra­phic data, attach­ment style (Bie­le­feld ques­ti­on­naire part­nership expec­ta­ti­ons), sym­ptoms of Inter­net addic­tion (scale for online addic­tion for adults), used Web-based ser­vices, and online rela­ti­ons­hip moti­ves (Cyber Rela­ti­ons­hip Motive Scale, CRMS-D) were asses­sed. In order to con­firm the fin­dings, a study using the Ror­schach test was also con­duc­ted.

Results: In total, 245 sub­jects were recrui­ted. Par­ti­ci­pants with inse­cure attach­ment style showed a hig­her ten­dency to patho­lo­gi­cal Inter­net usage com­pa­red with secu­rely atta­ched par­ti­ci­pants. An ambi­va­lent attach­ment style was par­ti­cu­larly asso­cia­ted with patho­lo­gi­cal Inter­net usage. Esca­pist and social-compensatory moti­ves played an important role for inse­cu­rely atta­ched sub­jects. Howe­ver, there were no signi­fi­cant effects with respect to Web-based ser­vices and apps used. Results of the ana­ly­sis of the Ror­schach pro­to­col with 16 sub­jects corr­o­bo­ra­ted these results. Users with patho­lo­gi­cal Inter­net use fre­quently showed signs of infan­tile rela­ti­ons­hip struc­tu­res in the con­text of social groups. This refers to the results of the Web-based sur­vey, in which inter­per­so­nal rela­ti­ons­hips were the result of an inse­cure attach­ment style.

Con­clu­si­ons: Patho­lo­gi­cal Inter­net use was a func­tion of inse­cure attach­ment and limi­ted inter­per­so­nal rela­ti­ons­hips.

Full ver­sion: http://www.jmir.org/2017/5/e170/

Eichen­berg, C., Schott, M., Decker, O. & Sin­delar, B. (2017). Attach­ment style and Inter­net addic­tion. Jour­nal of Medi­cal Inter­net Research,m19(5):e170, DOI: 10.2196/jmir.6694.