Determining the Relation between Turkish Middle- School Students’ Internet Addiction and Perceived Social Support from Family

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the relation between middle-school students’ Internet Addictionlevels and their perceived social support from family. The study has been conducted in the cross-sectionaldescriptive design, and data were collected from 3,391 students in the 5th-8th grades at 23 middle schoolsunder the Directorate of National Education in the city of Burdur and its central villages. A personalinformation form, the Internet Addiction Scale, and the Social Support Received from the Family Scale havebeen used for collecting data. After making the necessary explanations to the students, an informed consentform was sent to their parents/legal guardians; students who returned these forms were included in thestudy. The quantities, percentages, averages, and standard deviations, which are among descriptive statisticalmethods, have been used in evaluating the data. Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis were appliedover the study’s continuous variables. Of the students in the study, 4.6% were observed to have Internetaddiction at a pathological level. The factors influencing Internet addiction have been determined as: lack ofsocial support received from family, being male, low school success, having a high weekly allowance, beingin higher grades, and being online frequently. The rate of internet addiction is higher in this group andfound to relate to the perceived support from family.