4th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions February 20-22, 2017 Haifa, Israel.

Abstract

Background and aims: Previous small-scale studies in Portugal suggested that a minority of adolescents could be at risk for developing technological addictions such as Internet addiction (IA) and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). However, these findings are still to be replicated by larger studies using more robust samples. In light of this, the present aimed to ascertain how IA, IGD, and Facebook addiction (FA) may impact on Portuguese school-aged adolescents' mental health. Methods: A total of 509 school -aged adolescents were recruited (M age = 13 years; S.D. = 1.64 years) to a multi-technological addictions project. Data were collected on participants' sociodemographic, IA, IGD, FA, and several psychiatric symptoms. Results: Overall, the incidence of technological addictions was not overly prevalent across the sample (0% IA; 1% IGD; 1.8% FA), and a small minority of adolescents appeared to be 'at-risk' for developing technological addictions (1.6% IA; 0.6% IGD; 2.4% FA). Finally, increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress were found to be consistently associated with augmented symptomatology of technological addictions. Conclusions: The findings of the present study provided preliminarily insights into how technological addictions may affect Portuguese school-aged adolescents, and corroborated a large body of international studies that found systematic links between technological addictions and psychiatric comorbidities.