An investigation of internet addiction and problematic internet use of secondary and high school students

The main purpose of this study is to examine the Internet addiction levels and problematic Internet use of students continuing their education in secondary and high schools, and to conduct an in-depth study on Internet addiction and problematic Internet use situations in terms of various variables. For this reason, in the first step of the research, by using meta-analysis method, the studies on "the effect of gender on internet addiction levels" were examined and the relationship between the gender factor and internet addiction was tried to be explained. In the second step of the study, the direction and level of Internet addiction of the students were investigated by using Exploratory Sequential Design, which is a mixed method, in which both quantitative and qualitative models are used. In order to collect data in the quantitative dimension of the research, personal information form and YİBTKF were used. In the qualitative aspect of the study, interviews were conducted to gather more in-depth information about students' Internet addiction levels. The population of the study consists of students attending secondary schools and high schools in Yeşilyurt and Battalgazi central districts of Malatya province and their parents. The quantitative sample of the study consists of 1453 students who continue their education in secondary and high schools. Qualitative sample consists of 14 students and 9 parents. For the data obtained from the quantitative dimension of the study, normality tests, mean, median, mode, histogram graph, kurtosis and skewness values and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) values were examined to check whether they met the normal distribution criteria for each variable. Non-Parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman Rank Difference Correlation) were used because the data set did not meet the normality criteria. Content analysis was performed on the data obtained as a result of the interviews made for the qualitative dimension. According to the results, students' Internet addiction levels differ significantly according to variables of gender, student level, whether or not they have a smartphone, daily Internet usage time, Internet service type used, purpose of use, social media usage status, maternal education status, generally perceived maternal attitude, father education, generally perceived attitude of the father, expressing their experience with the family regarding Internet use, the socioeconomic status of the family and academic success. Internet addiction levels do not differ according to the number of siblings and the means used for Internet access. Supporting studies were found in the comparison of the quantitative and qualitative findings of the study in the literature. Various suggestions were made based on the results obtained from the research Keywords: Internet addiction, problematic Internet use, middle school students, high school students, parents