Flow and Telepresence contributing to Internet Abuse: Differences according to Gender and Age

•We examined whether and how Flow and Telepresence associate with Internet Abuse.•Second, we investigated gender and age differences in the three variables.•We tested 1609 high school students.•Flow and Telepresence significantly associated with Internet Abuse with Telepresence moderating flow.•Males were higher in Internet Abuse, Flow and Telepresence, while older adolescents scored higher in Telepresence.

Flow describes immersive tendencies to Internet activities, and Telepresence defines the level one is absorbed in his virtual environment. The aim of this study was twofold: (a) to test whether and how Flow and Telepresence may contribute to Internet Abuse and (b) to examine group differences in Internet Abuse, Flow and Telepresence according to gender and age among adolescents. The sample consisted of 1609 adolescents, with a mean age of 16 years old. Internet Abuse was assessed with the Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1998), Flow with the Flow Questionnaire (Chen, Wigand, & Nilan, 1999) and Telepresence with the Presence II questionnaire (Witmer & Singer, 1998). Findings revealed that Flow and Telepresence were related with Internet Abuse with Telepresence positively moderating the effect of Flow. Considering group differences, males were at higher risk of Internet Abuse and were more likely to experience Flow and Telepresence, while older adolescents scored higher only in Telepresence.