Internet Addiction and Stressors Causing Internet Addiction in Primary School Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive and Cross-Sectional Study from Turkey
Addicta: the Turkish Journal on Addictions, cilt.8, sa.1, ss.65-72, 2021 (ESCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 8 Sayı: 1
- Basım Tarihi: 2021
- Doi Numarası: 10.5152/addicta.2021.21032
- Dergi Adı: Addicta: the Turkish Journal on Addictions
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.65-72
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Child, COVID-19, internet addiction, pandemics, primary schools
- Maltepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
In this study, we aimed to examine the status of internet addiction in children and the stress factors causing it during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study was a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study sample included 154 parents of 7- to 10-year-old students. Participant information form and the Family-Child Internet Addiction Scale were used as data collection tools. The data of the study were collected with a questionnaire (via Google Forms) between July 15 and December 15, 2020. Of the children participating in the study, 90.3% (n=139) showed no symptoms and 9.7% (n=15) showed limited symptoms in terms of internet addiction. The total mean score that the children obtained from the scale was found to be 24.6±16.9. It was observed that the frequency of a child playing games with parents, the parents watching news about COVID-19 with the child, and the child being frequently warned about the COVID-19 precautions increased the children’s internet addiction scores (p<0.05). This study demonstrated that if the pandemic process was prolonged, internet addiction in children could be further triggered.