Investigation of digital addiction in secondary school students

In this study, which examines digital addiction in secondary school students, it is aimed to examine digital addictions in terms of life satisfaction, social skills and peer relations variables. Another aim is to examine whether digital addiction levels show a significant difference according to gender, grade level, most used digital tool, daily internet usage time. The study group of the research consists of a total of 538 (268 girls, 270 boys) secondary school students studying at the 6th, 7th and 8th grade levels of six different schools in Çankaya, Keçiören and Altındağ districts of Ankara province in the 2023-2024 academic year. In the study, the 'Personal Information Form' created by the researchers was used to collect data on the personal information of the participants, the 'Digital Addiction Scale for Children' (DASC) was used to measure the digital addiction levels of secondary school students, the 'Matson Social Skills Scale for Children' (MESSY) was used to measure the social skills levels of the students with the sub-dimensions of positive social behaviours and negative social behaviours, the 'Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale' (Short Form) was used to evaluate the life satisfaction of the students, and the 'Peer Relationship Scale' was used to evaluate the peer relationships of the students. Permissions for the research were obtained from the Social and Human Sciences Scientific Research and Ethics Committee of Kırşehir Ahi Evran University and Ministry of National Education. The data obtained in the study were analysed statistically through SPSS 25 package programme. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine whether digital addiction in secondary school students showed a significant difference according to gender; one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine whether it showed a significant difference according to grade level, most used digital tool, daily internet usage time variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether the other independent variables in the study, life satisfaction, positive social skills and negative social skills, which are the sub-dimensions of social skills, and peer relationships predict digital addiction in secondary school students. As a result of the analyses, it was concluded that digital addictions in secondary school students did not show a significant difference in terms of gender and the most frequently used digital tool, but showed a significant difference in terms of class level and daily internet usage time. In addition, according to the multiple regression analysis, it was concluded that life satisfaction and negative social skills significantly predicted digital addiction in secondary school students. Keywords: Peer relationships, digital addiction, secondary school students, social skills, life satisfaction,