Examination of the relationship between problematic internet use and metacognition, adverse childhood events, alexithymia and impulsivity

The aim of this study is to examine the projection of some concepts and relationships between them. These concepts which are problematic internet use, metacognition, cognitive attentional syndrome, alexithymia, impulsivity and adverse childhood events, have been examined in different contexts in the past literature. The sample of the relationships is consisted 525 people, 315 females and 210 males. The sample's age is distributed 18-65 who lives in different cities of Turkey. "Young Internet Addiction Scale, Metacognition Questionnaire-30 Scale, Adverse Childhood Events Scale, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Cognitive Attentional Syndrome-1 Scale and Socio-Demographic Information Form" were used in the study. The data obtained in the research has been analyzed through the SPSS package program and for the structural equation modeling AMOS V22 is used. In this study, descriptive analysis is used for frequency distributions of demoghrapic informations. Correlation analysis is used to examine the relationships between variables. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to determine the contribution of variables to the explanation of problematic internet use and structural equation modeling is used to determine indirect effects of variables on the problematic internet use. In conclusion, research results show that although there is not any significant relationship between the problematic internet use and participants' negative childhood experiences, there is a significant relationship between participants' problematic internet use and their impulsivity levels, metacognitions, alexithymia levels and cognitive attentional syndrome. In addition, correlation results also show that there is a significant relationship between participants' negative childhood experiences and their impulsivity levels, metacognitions, alexithymia levels and cognitive attentional syndrome. Finally regression analysis results indicate that there is positive effects of alexithymia and impulsivity levels, metacognitions and cognitive attentional syndrome on problematic internet use.