The Effect of Internet Addictive use on VDT Syndrome's Subjective Symptoms and Physical Fitness
of Male Middle School Students
The study used the questionnaire on Internet Addiction to find out internet-addicted students from 440 second grade students...
The Effect of Internet Addictive use on VDT Syndrome's Subjective Symptoms and Physical Fitness
of Male Middle School Students
The study used the questionnaire on Internet Addiction to find out internet-addicted students from 440 second grade students of J middle school in J city. Of a total of 440, 16 responses were excluded from our analysis as they are either unfaithfully answered or partially omitted. The rest of 420 subjects were divided into internet addiction group(N=72) and non-internet addiction group(N=352) and took the preliminary test. One year later, they did the same questionnaire on internet addiction again. As the result, 12 from 72 of the internet addiction group were excluded and 60 from 352 of the non-internet addiction group were randomly selected for the study. The study was designed to analyze the effect of internet addictive use on VDT syndrome's subjective symptoms and physical fitness of 120 male middle school students. The result of the study was as the follows;
1. Syndrome's Subjective Symptoms
The internet addiction group showed more musculoskeletal symptoms, fatigue symptoms and eye symptoms than the non-internet addiction group.
2. Physical Fitness
1) Comparison by group
In the first test, internet addiction group showed high records in 50m dash, standing long jump, push-ups and sit-ups than the non-internet addiction group. In the second test, the non-internet addiction group showed high records in 50m dash, standing long jump, push-ups, sit-ups and 1,600m run-walk than the internet addiction group.
2) Comparison within group
In the first and second test, internet addiction group showed a significant improvement in 50m dash, standing long jump and sit-and-reach test, while the non-internet addiction group showed a significant improvement in 50m dash, standing long jump, sit-and-reach test, sit-ups and 1,600m run/walk.
The result indicated that internet addiction has a negative impact on syndrome's subjective symptoms and physical fitness. Accordingly, education on proper computer use environment and mental health education to control excessive computer use should be provided to the younger generation. Furthermore, improvement in school and community physical training programs, a policy to promote teenager's participation in physical activities, and their habit to do appropriate exercise regularly should be required for their mental and physical health.