The impact of internet addiction on marital relationship

Access to internet has become increasingly easier by the improvement of technology. Many people have begun to use the Internet actively in almost all areas of their daily life, and for some, this has become an addiction. There is no doubt that the internet, which has many advantages such as access to information, research, personal development, has begun to be debated as a result of its inability to control its use today. Individuals who spend most of their time on the internet have begun to have problems in their functionalities in academic, social, professional and private life. These problems also pose some risks to the marriage and family relationships of individuals. The purpose of this research; to examine the relationship between internet addiction and marital adjustment, which is an important concept in the determination of family relationships, and to determine the role of communication skills in this relationship. In addition, determining the differentiation of the internet addiction levels of the individuals according to various socio- demographic characteristics such as gender, educational status, working status, perceived socio-economic level constitute the sub-objectives of the research. The research's study group consisted of 377 married individuals living in Istanbul, aged 20- 45 years and volunteering to participate in the study. Participants filled the; "Personal Information Form" which is prepared by the researcher in order to determine the socio- demographic characteristics of the participants and the information about internet usage, "Internet Addiction Scale" in order to determine internet addiction levels, "Communication Skills Scale" for determining communication skills and "Marital Adjusment Scale" for determining marriage adjustment levels. As a result of the research, there is a meaningful and negative relationship between "internet addiction" and "marital adjustment", meaningful and negative relationship between "internet addiction and communication skills", meaningful and positive relationship between "marital adjustment and communication skills". Additionally, in the relationship between internet addiction and marital adjustment, communication skill has mediator effect. Also, it is determined that indirect effect is more important than direct effect in the relationship of internet addiction and marital adjustment. Key Words: internet addiction, problematic internet use, marital adjustment, communication skills