Method

2.1. Participants and procedure
Convenience sampling was used for selecting participants, who consisted of university students residing in the United Kingdom. Ninety-seven individuals (41 females, 56 males) completed the study. For purposes of inclusion in the study participants were required to speak English, be at least 18 years of age, and have used the Internet over the previous week. The mean age of the sample was 23.3 years (SD = 3.0 years) and the age range was 18–30 years. The sample was 78.4% Caucasian, 10.3% African–British, 5.2% Asian and 6.2% other. Participants were approached and asked if they were willing to take part in a research project “investigating the role of thoughts and emotions in Internet use”. Participation in the research project was entirely voluntary. Participants who agreed to take part in the study were seated at a desk and asked (verbally and in writing) to provide demographic details and complete the batch of questionnaires (HADS, BPS, MCQ-30 and IAT) on one occasion. The questionnaires were administered in pencil-and-paper format and presented randomly. Participants were informed that they had 20 min available to complete the batch of questionnaires. At the end of the task participants were asked to return the batch of questionnaires and were debriefed about the research project. No opportunity was given for response correction.

2.2. Measures
The following scales were used:

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). This scale consists of 14 items, 7 assessing anxiety and 7 assessing depression. The anxiety sub-scale includes items such as: “I get a sort of frightened feeling as if something horrible is about to happen”. The depression sub-scale includes items such as: “I feel as if I am slowed down”. Higher scores represent higher levels of anxiety and depression. Overall, the scale possesses good validity and reliability ([Herrmann, 1997], [Mykletun et al., 2001] and [Zigmond and Snaith, 1983]). HADS was chosen as a measure of negative emotions because it is widely used in both clinical and non-clinical research samples across a variety of domains in psychological dysfunction (e.g. [Alati et al., 2004] and [Wagena et al., 2005]).

The Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS; Farmer & Sundberg, 1986). This scale consists of 28 items assessing levels of boredom. Examples of items include: “It is easy for me to concentrate on my activities”; “Time always seems to be passing slowly”. Higher scores represent higher levels of generally experienced boredom. The scale possesses good psychometric properties ([Ahmed, 1990] and [Farmer and Sundberg, 1986]).

Metacognitions Questionnaire 30 (MCQ-30; Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004). This measure assesses individual differences in metacognitive beliefs, judgments and monitoring tendencies. It consists of five replicable sub-scales assessed by 30 items in total. The five sub-scales measure the following dimensions of metacognition: (1) positive beliefs about worry (e.g. “worrying helps me cope”); (2) negative beliefs about worry concerning uncontrollability and danger (e.g. “when I start worrying I cannot stop”); (3) cognitive confidence (e.g. “my memory can mislead me at times”); (4) beliefs about the need to control thoughts (e.g. “not being able to control my thoughts is a sign of weakness”); and (5) cognitive self-consciousness (e.g. “I pay close attention to the way my mind works”).

Higher scores represent higher levels of metacognitive maladaption. The MCQ-30 possesses good internal consistency and convergent validity, as well as acceptable test–retest reliability (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004).

The Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Young, 1998b). This measure consists of 20 items assessing the degree of problematic Internet use. Examples of items include: “How often do you choose to spend more time on-line over going out with others?”; “How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins?”. Higher scores represent higher levels of problematic Internet use. The scale has been found to posses good psychometric properties (Widyanto & McMurran, 2004).