Abstract:

The present study investigated the problem of Internet addiction in fist year students at the second largest public university in Mexico, a state higher education institution with a little more than two hundred years of tradition and near of two hundred and ten thousand undergraduate students. During the first semester of 2013 a sample of 673 first year students of the University were asked to complete an Internet addiction questionnaire of 34 items, based on the twenty items Young’s Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1998). The findings of the study showed that there were significant differences at alpha =< .01 between male and female students. Female students seemed to be less affected by the Internet addiction than their male counterparts. The gender variable has a significant effect on Internet addiction in the first year students; however, this data is striking when compared with the results of similar studies in other countries. The possible explanation for the findings probably has to do with the level of Internet penetration in Mexican population. Based on findings on the gender implications in Internet use, this article raised the discussion about the need of special public policy guidelines to avoid the problem.

Keywords:

Internet Addiction, Undergraduate Students, higher Education, Mexico.