Internet Addiction as a Precursor for Cyber and Displaced Aggression: A Survey Study on Pakistani Youth

Özet

This study aimed to examine the association of internet addiction with cyber aggression and displaced aggressionamong 513 (173 boys and 338 girls) Pakistani preteens and teenagers. The participants were randomly selectedto complete a survey based on validated instruments, internet addiction test, cyber aggression questionnaire foradolescent, and displaced aggression questionnaire. Pearson’s correlation coefficients, one-way analysis of variance, and independent sample t-test were run to scrutinize hypothesis using Statistical Package for Social Sciencesversion 20 (IBM SPSS Corp.; Armonk, NY, USA). The results revealed that 34% of the youth was severely or moderately addicted to internet misuse. Furthermore, findings demonstrated that internet addiction is significantlyand positively associated with cyber aggression and displaced aggression. Results also highlighted that internetaddiction, cyber aggression, angry rumination, and displaced aggression vary with sex, and internet obsession ishigher in boys than in girls. Implications of these results were discussed and some recommendations suggested.