Investigation of the relationship between social skills, emotion regulation and internet addiction in secondary school students

In this research, it was aimed to examine the relationship between social skills and emotion regulation of secondary school students and internet addiction. The quantitative research method was used in the research and it was designed in a relational screening model. The analysis method to be used is relationship tests. It was thought that as a result of secondary school students spending a long time with the internet, internet addiction might be occur, their social skills might be affected and there might be a significant difference with emotion regulation. With the widespread use of the internet, the concept of internet addiction emerged, and it was thought that the effects on secondary school students could be high because they could not reach sufficient maturity. It is thought that as a result of secondary school students spending a long time on the internet, internet addiction may occur, their social skills may be affected, and there may be a significant difference with emotion regulation. Secondary school students who study in Bağcılar district of İstanbul province in the 2021-2022 academic year, who volunteer and whose parents approved the attendence, participated in the research. In the study, the 'Internet Addiction Scale' was used to determine the internet addiction level of the students; to measure social skills, the 'Matson Social Skills Scale'; The Emotion Regulation Scale for Adolescents to used to measure emotion regulation. Were determine the demographic characteristics of the students, the 'Personal Information Form' developed by the researcher was used. The scales in the research prepared in order to reach more participants due to the disruptions and health measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic conditions were applied online to the participants. The data obtained from the scales used were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics program (25). According to the result of the research, emotion regulation skills, particularly external-dysfunctional ones, and negative social behaviors predict internet addiction. Negative social behaviors play a partial mediating role in the prediction of external dysfunctional emotion regulation on internet addiction. Similarly, negative social behaviors play a mediating role in the prediction of internet addiction by internal dysfunctional emotion regulation. As a result of the research, there is a negative relationship between internet addiction and internal functional emotion regulation as well as positive social behaviors; an important and significant positive correlation has been with external dysfunctional emotion regulation, internal dysfunctional emotion regulation, external functional emotion regulation, and negative social behaviors. There is a positive relationship between positive social behaviors and internal functional emotion regulation and external functional emotion regulation and there is a negative relationship between positive social behaviors and external dysfunctional emotion regulation and internal dysfunctional emotion regulation. Negative social behaviors are negatively related to internal functional emotion regulation and external functional emotion regulation, while there is a positive relationship between dysfunctional external emotion regulation and dysfunctional internal emotion regulation.