Examining the relationship between internet addiction and compassion level in adolescents

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between internet addiction and compassion level in adolescents. The model of the research is survey model. The study group of the research consists of adolescents who continue their education in official high schools in Onikisubat, one of the central districts of Kahramanmaraş province in the 2022-2023 academic year. The study group of the research consists total of 450 adolescents, 209 female and 241 male. In the study, the Personal Information Form to determine the demographic information of the adolescents in the study group, Internet Addiction Scale for adolescents to determine the internet addiction levels of adolescents were used. The Compassion Scale to determine the levels of compassion was used. Independent Sample t-Test, One-Way Variance Analysis (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were used to the analysis of the data obtained in the study. The findings indicate that the internet addiction scores of adolescents does not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, class, school type and perceived economic status. It was concluded that there is a significant difference according to the variables of the purpose of internet use and the duration of internet use. While it was observed that the total compassion score of the adolescents did not differ significantly according to the class and perceived economic status variables, it was found that it differed significantly according to the variables of gender, school type, purpose of internet use and duration of internet use. In addition, there was a positive and low level correlation between internet addiction and self-compassion sub-dimension; a negative and low level correlation was found with the sub-dimensions of being compassionate to others, compassionate towards other living things, and the total score of compassion. In addition, it was seen that compassion scores explained 5.9% of the variance in internet addiction scores. The findings of the research were discussed in line with the information in the literature, and various suggestions were made.