Social Skills and Risk Taking Behavior among Problematic and Normal Internet Users in Middle and Late Adolescence

Abstract

Social Skills and Risk-Taking Behavior among Problematic and newlineNormal Internet Users in Middle and Late Adolescence newlineMonika K. Shikari newlineThesis Abstract newlineThe prime aim of this study was to identify the impact of problematic internet use on social skills and risk-taking behavior prevailing in adolescence during the middle and late adolescence period. Sufficient literature concern to the topic was reviewed and total 92 hypotheses were formulated to fulfil the objectives of the study. newlineThe 400 purposive sample of the study was comprised of 200 problematic internet users and 200 normal internet users of male and female adolescence having middle and late adolescence period age ranged from 14 to 16 and 17- to 19 years respectively selected from the schools of Ahmedabad and Mehsana district of Gujarat state following two levels of each independent variable i.e. use of internet (problematic - normal), gender (male - female) and adolescence period (middle - late) as distributed in 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. newlineThe data was collected through Gujarati version of: (I) Internet Addiction Test (IAT) developed by K.S.Young, (II) Social Skill Rating Scale (SSRS) developed by Vishal Sood, Arti Anand and Suresh Kumar and (III) Risk Taking Scale (RTS) developed by Subhash Sarkar. newlineUse of internet plays a significant role only in case of games and sports and health related risk-taking behavior. Gender variable significantly impact only to self-care/ self-control skills of adolescents. Adolescence period variable significantly impact only to self-care/ self-control skills of adolescents. The interaction between use of internet and gender (AxB), use of internet and adolescence period (AxC) and among use of internet, gender and adolescence period (AxBxC) significantly impact to self-care/ self-control skills. newlineThere is a negative correlation between the score of overall social skill and overall risk-taking behavior of adolescents. newline newline