Prevalence of pathological and maladaptive Internet use and the association with depression and health-related quality of life in Japanese elementary and junior high school-aged children.

Our results demonstrated that pathological Internet use is not uncommon even in elementary school-aged children and that those with pathological and maladaptive Internet use have severe mental health problems and decreased health-related quality of life, supporting the importance of providing these children with educational and preventive interventions against problematic Internet use and associated risk factors.