Depression, internet addiction and related factors in adolescents of high school students

This study is conducted as a cross sectional research in order to investigate the depression, internet addiction and related factors in adolescents of high school students. It is found 345 students with 95% confidence level, calculated with equation which sample size proposed by Büyüköztürk et al., over 3289 students who study in 5 high schools depending on Directorate of National Education in Trabzon city center. It is targeted to reach 690 students under the assumption that the pattern effect of the survey is 2. However, because of missing data caused deficient filling of data collection tools by some of the students and some students give up to participate in the survey later on, opinions of the aforementioned students are excluded from the scope of the survey and data of 690 students have been evaluated. In the study, Personal Information Form, Beck Depression Scale, Internet Addiction Scale and UCLA Loneliness Scale are used. To analyse the data obtained from adolescents of high school students under the scope of the survey, firstly answers of the students have been transferred to SPPS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). In the evaluation of the data, descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage values, minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation), t test in unrelated measurements, Levene homogeneity test, Kruskall Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test, one way variance analysis, LSD multiple comparison test, X2 test of independence assesses and Pearson correlation coefficients are used. When the characteristics of adolescents of high school students who participated the survey are examined, it is found that 46.0 % of the adolescents (n=361) are women, 30.6 % of them (n=205) study in 9th grade, 30.9 % of them (n=207) are 17 years old, 31.2 % of them (n=209) study in imam hatip high school, 91.8 % of them (n=614) use home type of shelter, 82.8 % of them (n=554) have nuclear family, families of 59.8 % of them (n=400) live in metropolitan cities, parents of 96.9 % of them (n=648) are alive, 98.5 % of them (n=659) have no step-family members, 68.0 % of them (n=455) state that they have a balanced income and expense budgets, 77.4 % of them (n=518) have enough monthly income (pocket money), 39.5 % of them (n=264) are 3 siblings, 69.5 % of them (n=465) have a good relations with their siblings, fathers of 27.5 % of them (n=184) graduated from high school, fathers of 54.6 % of them (n=365) have independent businesses, 79.7 % of them (n=533) define the relations with their fathers as good, 67.9 % of them (n=454) have decent fathers, mothers of 39.0 % of them (n=261) graduated from primary school, mothers of 78.8 % of them have no occupations, 88.6 % of them (n=593) have good relations with their mothers, 76.4 % of them (n=511) have decent mothers, 59.5 % of them have middle level success in their schools, 88.2 % of them (n=590) have never failed in their classes, 57.4 % of them (n=384) have good relations with their teachers, 75.6 % of them (n=506) have good relations with their friends, 94.8 % of them (n=634) have close friends, 68.5 % of them (n=458) have memberships to virtual friendship websites, 95.2 % of them (n=637) do not choose their friends from virtual environments, 74.3 % of them (n=497) have internet connections in their homes, 35.9 % of them (n=240) use internet at home, 94.9 % of them (n=635) have no technological devices to connect to the internet, 87.9 % of them (n=588) have a device to connect to the internet rather than computer, 7.2 % of them (n=48) use all aforementioned tools to use the internet, 42.5 % of them (n=284) have never sent a message with a mobile phone before. Adolescents of high school students who participated the survey are found that 25.0 % of them (n=167) use the computer for lesson-game, 59.5 % of them (n=398) play game on the internet, 76.1 % of them (n=509) use the internet for 1-4 hours daily, parents of 57.5 % of them (n=385) also use the internet, 83.7 % of them (n=560) do not describe themselves as internet addicted, 84.6 % of them (n=566) state that using internet does not cause any anger/depression on them. Adolescents of high school students who participated the survey are found that 93.1 % of them (n=623) have no health problem or disability, 91.8 % of them (n=614) have no chronic disease, 77.0 % of them (n=515) enjoy their lives, 62.5% of them (n=418) believe that their expectations will come true, 91.0 % of them (n=910) have no smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, 85.8 % of them (n=574) had no thought of harming themselves in last year. It is found that 1.3 % adolescents (n=9) who stated that they have damage themselves, cut some part of them and 62.8 % of them (n=420) use computer and internet. When regular activities of students are examined, 13.3 % of them state that they are playing basketball. When emotions of adolescents are analysed after their free time activity, 73.4 % of adolescents state that they are out of stress, calm and relax. It is found that tendency to depression of adolescents is affected from; gender, finding income and pocket money adequate, relationship with their siblings, attitudes of their fathers, relationship with their mothers, success in the school, relationship with their friends and teachers, and having close friends, membership to virtual friendship websites, choosing friends from virtual environments, having internet at their homes, devices for internet connection, purpose of using internet, average time of daily internet use, being addiction of internet and situation of internet use causes to anger/depression, enjoying life, future expectations, having smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, having a thought of harming themselves and damaging themselves in last year. It is found that internet addiction level of adolescents is affected from; gender, level of class that is studied, age and school type, finding pocket money adequate, number of siblings and relationship with them, education of their fathers, occupations of their fathers and attitudes of them, education of their mothers, occupations of their mothers and relationship with them, relationship with their teachers and having close friends, membership to virtual friendship websites, choosing friends from virtual environments, having internet at their homes, having technological devices to connect internet, daily number of messages sent with a mobile phone, having technological devices to connect internet rather than computer, purpose of using internet, playing games on internet, average time of daily computer use, situation of parents for using internet, being addiction of internet and situation of internet use causes to anger/depression, having any health (disability) problems, enjoying life, future expectations, having smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, having a thought of harming themselves and damaging themselves in last year. When averages of the answers given by adolescents for the clauses of scales in the survey are analysed, adolescents who have tendency to depression (X ̅ =19,40±18,61) are found to have significantly higher level of internet addiction compared to adolescents who do not have tendency to depression (X ̅ =9,81±11,77). As a result of research, it is concluded that depression tendency of adolescents increases with internet addiction and loneliness of adolescents, and loneliness of adolescents, who have tendency to depression (X ̅ =52,61±6,57), are significantly higher than adolescents who do not have tendency to depression (X ̅ =50,75±6,74), however, loneliness levels of adolescents cannot explain the internet addiction parameters in a significant way. When all the results are evaluated generally; it can be said that adolescents of high school students are affected especially from interpersonal relationships, relation of depression and internet addiction is noticeably more, and however, internet addiction and loneliness are interestingly not related. It can be said that education should be performed and risk groups are evaluated based on these results in school work. Key words: Adolescents, depression, internet addiction, related factors.