Adding Clinical Validity to the Statistical Power of Large-Scale Epidemiological Surveys on Internet Addiction in Adolescence

OBJECTIVE Research has indicated that internet addiction is associated with psychosocial maladjustment in adolescence. Many epidemiologic surveys are lacking representativeness, and knowledge on disorder-specific risk factors is scarce. One weakness of epidemiologic studies often regards their lack of generalizability to clinical reality. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed description of internet addiction among adolescents, focusing on its prevalence in a population-based context, psychopathological correlates, and predisposing factors. METHODS The main analyses were based on 2 large representative samples of German adolescents (N = 9,293; 12-19 years) collected in 2012, and t…