The role of stress and emotıon regulatıon ın the relatıonshıp between traumatıc experıences and problematıc ınternet use among teenagers

Childhood trauma can negatively affect individuals' future lives emotionally, behaviorally and cognitively. One of these negative effects is problematic Internet use. Problematic Internet use, including excessive and uncontrolled use of the Internet, can have many negative effects on individuals, both physically and psychologically. Present study aimes to examine the role of stress, emotion regulation difficulties, mood regulation on the net and online social interaction preference in the relationship between childhood psychological trauma experiences and problematic Internet use among teenagers. The study group of the research consists of 871 high school students, 279 males and 558 females, studying from various provinces of Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year. In order to collect data in the current study, Childhood Traumas Scale (CTQ-33), Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIDS), Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DGI-16), Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale ( GPİKÖ-2) and Personal Information Form were used. Present study, using the relational screening model, the relationships between trauma experiences, problematic Internet use, stress, difficulty in emotion regulation, mood regulation on the net and online social interaction preference were analyzed by performing Structural Equation Model. The significance of the indirect relationships between the variables was tested with 2000 bootstrapping samples and 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. Pearson Product Moments Correlation analysis was used to determine the relations of the variables with each other. According to the results of the correlation analysis, it was revealed that all the variables considered in the model showed positive and significant relationships with each other. According to the results of structural equation modeling analysis, childhood traumas significantly predicted emotion regulation difficulties and stress levels whereas difficulty in emotion regulation also predicts online social interaction preference and mood regulation on the net. Stress, preference for online social interaction and mood regulation on the net significantly predicted problematic Internet use. Indirect effects in the model showed that traumatic experiences predicted problematic Internet through stress. At the same time, there is a mediating role in the relationship between traumatic experiences and problematic internet use through difficulty in emotion regulation, preference for online social interaction, and mood regulation on the net. The findings of this study show that the use of the Internet for mood regulation in adolescents with traumatic experiences, stress and difficulty in emotion regulation are important factors in problematic Internet use and interventions for these variables can be effective in preventive studies. Keywords: Childhood traumas, difficulty in emotion regulation, problematic internet use, stress