The relationship between internet addiction, body image and eating disorder

Recently spreading and having serious effects on people, internet addiction causes some problems on some age groups because of its unconcious use by them. The situations that a person come accross on the internet would result some negative effects. Some of these effects are body image and eating disorders. In this research, the relation between the internet addiction and eating disorders and the body image is examined. The population of the research is people between the ages of 18-25 that leave in the city of Istanbul. The sample of the study consists of 204 people, aged 18-25, live in the city of Istanbul, selected by random sampling method and who responded complately to all of the questşons and paticipated on a voluntary basis. Personal Information Form, Young people internet addiction Test, Short form (YIBT-SF), Body Percetion Scale (VAO) and Eating Attitude Test (YTT-26) were applied to the participants. When reading the results of the scales, internet addiction scale is in the range of minimum 12 maximum 60 points and it is seen that the score obtained by the participants is 30.04 and is above the average. Body image scale scoring is in the range of minimum 40 and maximum 200 points and it is seen that the score received by the participants is at a low level of 89.76. It is seen that the score received by the participants in the eating attitude test scale is at a high level of 112.96. The results of the survey show that internet addiction has no significant relation with height and weight however has a significant relation with the gender and it is concluded that the men has a higher addiction level than women. It is also indicated that internet addiction and and eating attitude has a significant negative relationship. It is also found that there is a positive relationship between internet addiction and body image. It is observed that there is an significant difference between the body image and the age and an important difference is obtained between the age of 18-19 and age of 24-25. Although there is no significant relationship between body image and eating attitude, it is concluded that there is no relationship between eating attitude and weight, height, gender and age.