PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the degrees of cellular phone usage among middle school students and to identify discriminating factors of addictive use of cellular phones among sociodemographic and psychological variables. METHODS: From 123 middle schools in Busan, potential participants were identified through stratified random sampling and 747 middle school students participated in the study. The data was collected from December 1, 2004 to December 30, 2004. Descriptive and discriminant analyses were used. RESULTS: Fifty seven percent of the participants were male and 89.7% used cellular phones at school. The participants were grouped into three groups depending on the levels of the cellular phone usage: addicted (n=117), dependent (n=418), non-addicted (n=212). Within the three groups, two functions were produced and only one function was significant, discriminating the addiction group from non-addiction group. Additional discriminant analysis with only two groups produced one function that classified 81.2% of the participants correctly into the two groups. Impulsiveness, anxiety, and stress were significant discriminating factors. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of this study, developing intervention programs focusing on impulsiveness, anxiety and stress to reduce the possible addictive use of cellular phones is suggested.
Adolescent ; *Adolescent Psychology ; Anxiety ; Behavior, Addictive/*psychology ; *Cellular Phone ; Demography ; Female ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior/psychology ; Male ; Questionnaires ; Students/*psychology

OBJECTIVETo study the relationship between impulsivity and sleep disorders in children.

METHODSA total of 1 736 children at ages of 6 to 12 years were randomly sampled from five districts of Changsha. Their parents completed the questionnaires about children's sleep conditions and behaviors (using Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11th version).

RESULTSFive hundred and fifty-four children (31.9%) had sleep disorders. The incidence of sleep disorders in boys was significantly higher than that in girls (35.4% vs 28.3%; P<0.01). The scores of attentional, motor, and non-planning impulsiveness factors as well as the total score of Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in children with sleep disorders were significantly higher than those in children without (P<0.01). The incidence of daytime sleepiness (35.9%) in children with sleep disorders was significantly higher than that in children without (24.7%; P<0.01). The scores of attentional, motor, and non-planning impulsiveness factors increased with the grade of sleep disorders, and reached a peak at the fifth grade. The children with frequent sleep snoring showed higher scores of above three impulsiveness factors than children without sleep snoring or having rare snoring (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONSSleep disorders are associated with impulsivity in children. It is thus essential to pay close attentions to children's sleep for children with relatively high impulsiveness.

Child ; Child Behavior Disorders ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; Female ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior ; physiopathology ; Male ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; physiopathology ; psychology

PURPOSE: ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with three characteristics, such as impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity symptoms. This is a common disease that the prevalence reaches 4-7% of all children. There are a variety of hypothesis in the pathogenic mechanisms and etiology. Parental psychopathology influences directly and indirectly on the occurrence of ADHD in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and psychological characteristics of caregiver of child with ADHD using the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)-2. METHODS: The subjects consisted of 35 caregivers of patients with ADHD and 34 caregivers of children without neuropsychiatric disorders who visited to the pediatric neurology clinic of Kangnam sacred heart hospital from January 2009 to June 2011. We diagnosed ADHD according to DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder)-IV criteria. We compared the psychologic characteristics between ADHD group and control group using T score of MMPI-2. RESULTS: MMPI T scores of caregivers of children with ADHD were significantly higher on the depression(D), psychasthenia(Pt), schizophrenia(Sc), social introversion (Si) scales than control group and most of scales were significantly higher in restructured clinical (RC) scale and personality psychopathology five (PSY-5) scales. CONCLUSION: The results suggested that psychopathology of caregivers might induce ADHD in the children. On the contrary, ADHD symptom of children might be associated with occurrence of psychopathology in the cargiver. In order to proper treatment of ADHD patient, we need to psychologic evaluation in the caregivers of patients with ADHD.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* ; Caregivers* ; Child* ; Heart ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior ; Introversion (Psychology) ; MMPI ; Neurology ; Parents ; Prevalence ; Psychopathology ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop a cell phone addiction scale for Korean adolescents. METHODS: The process included construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. The participants were 577 adolescents in two middle schools and three high schools. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Twenty items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 3 factors explaining 55.45% of total variance. The factors were labeled as withdrawal/tolerance (7 items), life dysfunction (6 items), and compulsion/persistence (7 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with self-control, impulsiveness, and cell phone use. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 20 items was .92. Scale scores identified students as cell phone addicted, heavy users, or average users. CONCLUSION: The above findings indicate that the cell phone addiction scale has good validity and reliability when used with Korean adolescents.
Adolescent ; *Adolescent Psychology ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; *Behavior, Addictive ; *Cellular Phone ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior ; Male ; Program Evaluation ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea

PURPOSE: This study explored the effects of neurofeedback training on Electroencephalogram (EEG), Continuous Performance Task (CPT) and ADHD symptoms in ADHD prone college students. METHODS: Two hundred forty seven college students completed Korean Version of Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS-K) and Korean Version of Beck Depression Inventory (K-BDI). The 16 participants who ranked in the top 25% of CAARS-K score and had 16 less of K-BDI score participated in this study. Among them, 8 participants who are fit for the research schedule were assigned to neurofeedback training group and 8 not fit for the research schedule to the control group. All participants completed Adult Attention Deficiency Questionnaire, CPT and EEG measurement at pretest. The neurofeedback group received 15 neurofeedback training sessions (5 weeks, 3 sessions per week). The control group did not receive any treatment. Four weeks after completion of the program, all participants completed CAARS-K, Adult Attention Deficiency Questionnaire, CPT and EEG measurement for post-test. RESULTS: The neurofeedback group showed more significant improvement in EEG, CPT performance and ADHD symptoms than the control group. The improvements were maintained at follow up. CONCLUSION: Neurofeedback training adjusted abnormal EEG and was effective in improving objective and subjective ADHD symptoms in ADHD prone college students.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology/*therapy ; Electroencephalography ; Emotions ; Female ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior ; Male ; *Neurofeedback ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Republic of Korea ; Self Concept ; Students/psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Task Performance and Analysis ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVEThis study is purposed to explore the relationship between aggressively driving behavior and functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) gene.

METHODSA total of 348 automobile drivers were investigated with Deffenbacher's driver anger scale, driving vengeance questionnaire (DVQ) and driver aggression behavior questionnaire. Eighty-eight drivers were selected as more, medium and less aggressive group, each. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 2.5% agarose gel electrophoresisi were adopted to detect the polymorphism of functional 30 bp-uVNTR in the promoter region of the X-chromosomal MAOA gene and their frequencies of varied genotypes were estimated.

RESULTSTwo alleles with 3 and 4 repeats of 30 bp-uVNTR were detected in the drivers. Among the more aggressive group, number of the allele with 3 repeats of 30 bp-uVNTR (63/88) was significantly more than that with 4 repeats (25/88) (chi(2) = 10.21, P < 0.01), and number of the allele with 4 repeats of 30 bp-uVNTR was more in the less aggressive group, indicating that persons with allele of 3 repeats of 30 bp VNTR were more aggressive in their driving than those with 4 repeats.

CONCLUSIONSAggressively driving behavior in drivers possibly related to their functional MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism. Effect of the gene on aggressively driving behavior should be further studied.

Adult ; Aggression ; physiology ; Automobile Driving ; psychology ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior ; genetics ; physiopathology ; Male ; Monoamine Oxidase ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; genetics ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Receptors, Serotonin ; genetics ; Serotonin ; physiology ; Surveys and Questionnaires