Investigation of technology addiction and alexithymia and brief symptom ınventory in university students

EXAMINATION OF TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION AND ALEXITHYMIA AND BRIEF SYMPTOM INVENTORY IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS This study was conducted to examine the relationship between technology addiction and alexithymia and brief symptom inventory in university students. The research was conducted in a descriptive and correlational design. The population of the study consisted of 31284 students enrolled in Dicle University in the fall semester of 2023-2024. The sample of the study was determined as 379 students with 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error with Epi Info program. The research was completed with a total of 379 students. Personal Information Form, Technology Addiction Scale (TAS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were used to collect the data. Percentages, mean, standard deviation, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis were used to evaluate the data. Since the variables included in the study showed normal distribution, Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate linear regression model were used. The mean age of the participants was 22.49 ± 3.13 years, 43% were male and 57% were female. The mean score of the Technology Addiction Scale was 48.83 ± 15.76, the mean score of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale was 51.45 ± 9.4, and the mean score of the Brief Symptom Inventory was 62.36 ± 42.06. There is a significant positive correlation between Technology Dependence Scale scores and Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory scores (p<0.05). In this study, it was found that students had moderate levels of technology addiction, possible alexithymic characteristics and moderate levels of psychological symptoms. Increased psychological symptoms and difficulty in expressing emotions increased the level of technology addiction, and it was also found that psychological symptoms and alexithymia levels had a significant effect on technology addiction. In line with these results, it may be recommended that psychiatric nurses should focus on psychological symptoms and alexithymia in coping with technology addiction, provide training and counseling services for students to increase awareness about technology addiction in universities, develop more effective treatment strategies by addressing psychological symptoms and emotional awareness in technology addiction interventions, and conduct more research examining the relationship between technology addiction, alexithymia and brief symptom inventory.