Investigation of the relationship between internet addiction and depression in epidemic adolescents

Adolescence is an important period for personality development. In this period, a process is experienced in which adolescents try to form their self-identities. Adolescents want to gain their independence and autonomy. They develop their own thoughts and values and try to find their own identity. They can experience many emotions such as depression, anxiety, anger, happiness and excitement. Socially, adolescents are faced with many factors such as circle of friends, peer pressure, gender roles, family structure and values of society. The Covid 19 epidemic is among the factors that affect adolescents as well as individuals. In addition to medical health problems, it has caused psychological problems in individuals. Social distancing due to epidemic measures and the increase in the time spent in closed areas have caused adolescents to spend more time on the internet. In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between internet addiction and depression in adolescents during the pandemic process. The universe of the research consists of 249 students who study in a private school established in Büyükçekmece district of Istanbul province in the academic year of 2022-2023 and agree to participate in the research voluntarily. Personal Information Form, Beck Depression Scale, and Internet Addiction Scale were used to collect data. Various results were obtained between gender, age, income level and class variables of social media addiction, internet addiction and depression distribution. It was determined that the distribution of social media addiction showed a statistically significant difference according to the time spent on social media, and the distribution of depression did not show a statistically significant difference according to the time spent on social media. In addition, it was observed that there was a positive, moderate and statistically significant relationship between social media addiction and internet addiction. Keywords: Depression, Adolescents, Epidemic, Internet Addiction