More than 60 percent of Chinese middle-school students get online when in a bad mood, according to a recent survey conducted by several reputable Chinese institutions.

Around 64.1 percent of the students surveyed said they went online to refresh themselves when feeling low or depressed. About 17.1 percent of the surveyed chose to surf the net, 25.6 percent played online games, and 21.4 percent, blogged.

Of those who played online games, 42 percent said the games helped them relax, 34.1 percent said the games helped them make friends, 28 percent chose the games just to "kill time," 18.3 percent thought the games could give them a sense of achievement and 17 percent said the games helped them escape reality.

The survey, which focused on Internet use by Chinese teenagers, was jointly conducted by China Youth Social Service Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and China Youth University for Political Science.

A total of 3,787 teenagers were surveyed, aging from 11 to 18, and 3,342 parents were surveyed. Samples were collected in 27 cities and counties of nine provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.