Investigation of the Association Between Loneliness, Social Skill Levels and Internet Addiction in Junior High School Students’

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the association between internet addiction(IA), and social skills and loneliness levels in junior high school students and to determine the factors affecting their IA levels. Method: The population of the study consisted of students attending junior high schools in Kirklareli, in the 2017-2018 academic year(N=10,682).After minimum sample size was calculated as 668, 693 students were reached. In the study, the Internet Addiction Scale(IAS), Matson Evaluation and Social Skills with Youngsters(MESSY) and Children's Loneliness Scale(CLS) were used to collect the study data. Results: Of the students, 13.5% were moderate, 1.5% were severe internet addicts. The results of the adjusted Multivariate Linear Regression analysis indicated that while there was a positive association between IAS scores and the scores for the NegativeMESSY(β:0.345, 95%CI:0.252;0.439,p<0.001) and CLS(β:0.169, 95%CI:0.050;0.288,p<0.01), there was no association between the IAS scores and PositiveMESSY scores(p>0.05).The risk of IA was high in the male gender, >12 years of age, those who perceive their academic success poorly, whose monthly household income was >3000₺/500$ and those who do not have parental control in internet use(p<0.05). Conclusion: The students’ IA levels are affected by their socio-demographic and internet usage characteristics. Their levels of negative social skills and loneliness increase as their IA level increase.