The effects of internet usage on the psychosocial status of elemantary school students

The Effects of Internet Usage on the Psychosocial Status of Elemantary School Students. Internet is considered as the technology of the era. Unconscious usage of Internet can lead to various problems. This study was carried out descriptively with the aim of the definition of effects of internet usage on the psychosocial status of elemantary school students. The students of 4th,5th,6th,7th grades attending at the elemantary schools of Beypazarı District National Education and the students? parents (N:2515) constituted the universe of study. Sample 737 students and their parents who accepted to participate in the study were taken. Questionnaires and behaviour and psychosocial problem checklist ? 17 (PSC-17) were used for collecting data. Data was collected between April-June 2012. Frequency distribution, percentages, averages, standard deviation, Chi-square, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H tests were used in the evaluation of data. The average age of the students participating in the study was 11.5±1.1 and 42.2% of them were boys. It was determined that 80.5% of students had computers at home, 33% of them had power-on passwords on their computers, 97.4% of them used internet. Physical changes in students that the complaints of headaches (36.2%), eye discomforts (34.5%), backache and lumbagos (32.7%) were increased. The cognitive changes seen on the students were the decreases in the school success (35.6%), hours of course work (42.6%) and reading (54.7%). It was determined that the students whose parents are gradutes of primary education and had 600-1000 TL of montly income had been using the internet for less than a year (p<0.05). It was seen that there is psychosocial problem risk on the 19.8% of the students participating the study. It was determined that the students going to cybercafes for internet and using internet at the weekends for more than 3 hours had more psychosocial problem risks and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p<0.05) . Trainer and consultant roles of nurses in the prevention of the harmful effects of Internet use is recommended.