Investigation of the relationship between emotional abuse of adolescents by their parents and social media addiction

Aim: This research was conducted to examine the relationship between emotional abuse of adolescents by their parents and social media addiction. Material and Method: The research was done by cross-sectional. The universe of the research consists of five high schools selected by lot between November 2021 and December 2022 in Malatya Province Yeşilyurt district center. 428 adolescents between the ages of 13-18 participated to the study. Data were collected using the descriptive characteristics form, the Perceived Emotional Abuse Scale for Adolescents (ASDS), and the Adolescent Social Media Addiction Scale (SMDS). The 26.0 package program (SPSS) was used in the analysis of the data, the normality assumption Kolmogorov- Smirnov, Shapiro- Wilk tests, the mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal Wallis test, the Dunn- Bonferroni multiple comparison test were used in the evaluation, and the Sperman Brown correlation coefficient was used for calculation. Results: The total score at the perceived emotional abuse–mother form (57.85±19.14), the total score at the perceived emotional abuse–father form (56.98±20.09), and the social media addiction level (5.68) A total score of ±2,40) was obtained. In addition, negative correlation between social media addiction and perceived severe rejection from the mother, covert rejection, unrealistic expectations, humiliation and total emotional abuse scores and (p<0.05) positive correlation with acceptance respect sub-dimension statistically significant relationships were detected. There was a negative correlations between social media addiction and perceived severe rejection from the father, covert rejection, unrealistic expectations, humiliation sub-dimensions and total emotional abuse scores, on the other hand, statistically significant (p<0.05) correlations were detected on posititive direction with the acceptance-respect sub-dimension. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that social media addiction decreases as the abuse increases in the sub-dimensions of severe rejection, hidden rejection, unrealistic expectations, humiliation and acceptance/respect between the emotional abuse that adolescents are exposed to by their parents and their social media addiction levels. Key Words: Perceived Emotional Abuse, Adolescent, Public Health Nursing, Social Media Addiction.