THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERNET ADDICTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between internet addiction and psychological symptoms among university students. The research was conducted among university students in North Cyprus. The sample for the research consists of 36.5% (n=46) female, 63.5% (n=80) male, 126 university students who were selected according to the criterion sampling method. “Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)” adapted by Şahin and Durak (1994), the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of .96, “Internet Addiction Scale (IAS)” adapted by Bayraktar (2001) with a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .90 and Biographic-Demographic Information Form were used for collecting data. Percentage documentation average, ANOVA and Pearson Moment’s correlation tests were used in data analysis. The statistical significance level was accepted as .05 in the study. The results of this study show that there is a significant correlation between internet addiction and psychological symptoms as somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism.

Keywords: Internet, internet addiction, psychological symptoms.

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