Table 1.
Sociodemographic characteristics of patients with Internet addiction with and without bipolar symptoms
| Bipolar IA-group (n = 75) |
IA-group (n = 168) |
Significance | |
| gender (male) | 97.3% (71) | 93.3% (162) | ns |
| age (M, SD) | 26.1 (9.91) | 24.2 (8.41) | ns |
| age (range) | 13–60 | 12–64 | |
| marital status (%, n) | |||
| single | 70.7% (53) | 76.8% (129) | ns |
| married | 16.0% (12) | 8.9% (15) | |
| separated, divorced, widowed | 2.7% (2) | 2.4% (4) | |
| housing situation (%, n) | χ2 = 13.35; p = .004 | ||
| with parents | 30.7% (23) | 49.4% (83) | |
| own household | 41.3% (31) | 26.8% (45) | |
| shared living | 12.0% (8) | 9.5% (16) | |
| other | 5.3% (4) | 0.6% (1) | |
| education (%, n) | χ2 = 11.53; p = .026 | ||
| <10th grade | 18.7% (14) | 11.3% (19) | |
| >10th grade | 64.0% (43) | 53.0% (89) | |
| still attending school | 13.3% (10) | 21.4% (36) | |
| other | 1.3% (1) | 0.0% (0) | |
| employment status (%, n) | χ2 = 12.97; p = .003 | ||
| full-time/part-time | 25.3% (19) | 17.3% (29) | |
| school/university/traineeship | 36.0% (27) | 56.0% (94) | |
| unemployed | 28.0% (21) | 13.1% (22) | |
| other | 2.7% (2) | 1.2% (2) |
Notes: M = mean, SD = standard deviation; χ2 = chi-square value, p = level of significance; percentages do not sum to 100% because of missing data; Bipolar IA-group = patients positively screened for Internet addiction and bipolar disorder; IA-group = patients positively screened for Internet addiction without bipolar symptoms