The Relationship Between Turkish Adolescents' Internet Addiction and Their Perceived Social Support Levels

Abstract

This study aims to the relationship between internet addiction and perceived social support of Turkish adolescents in terms of gender, grade level, type of high school, academic achievement, and family income level. The research was designed with survey research as a quantitative method. The research population is the state high schools in Kayseri, one of Turkey's provinces. The sample consists of 731 students, 318 girls and 413 boys, studying at various high schools. Personal Information Form, Addiction Profile Index-Internet Form, and Perceived Social Support Level Scale-R were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, independent samples t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results showed that a negative relationship was found between internet addiction and perceived social support. In addition, it was observed that the perceived social support significantly differentiated according to the variables of gender, grade level, and academic achievement of the participants; It is seen that internet addiction differs significantly only according to the academic achievement variable. As a result, in addition to reaching similar findings with the research in the literature, the reasons why internet addiction does not differ according to gender are discussed.