Examination of the relationship between screen addiction and increasing anxiety during the pandemic in university student

In this study, it was aimed to investigate how the anxiety experienced during the pandemic period has a relationship on screen addiction. At the same time, the relationship between anxiety and screen addiction in university students during the pandemic period was examined. For this purpose, the related study was carried out using the relational type survey method. The study group of the research consists of 256 students who continue their education at Istanbul Gelişim University between the years 2020-2021. The 'Coronavirus Anxiety Scale' scale, the validity and reliability study of which was conducted in Turkey by Evren et al. (2020), was used to determine the increased anxiety levels of university students included in the study during the pandemic period. At the same time, the 'Problem Internet Usage Scale-PIKO' developed by Ceyhan, Ceyhan and Gürcan (2007) was used to determine the screen addiction levels of the university student participant group. All collected data were analyzed and analyzed with SPSS, a statistical program for social sciences. According to the findings obtained from the research, it was found that Covid-19 anxiety affects screen addiction in university students during the Covid-19 pandemic period, and there is a linear low-power relationship between Covid-19 anxiety and screen addiction. As a result, it has been found that screen addiction increases as Covid-19 anxiety increases in university students during the Covid-19 pandemic period. In this context, it is recommended to create safe social environments for university students in order to effectively cope with the anxiety created by the Covid-19 pandemic period. Social environments that will be prepared by universities and that are safe in terms of health will be effective in alleviating the anxiety of young people.