DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND LONELINESS AMONG ADOLESCENTS THE ROLE OF INTERNET ADDICTION and GENDER

Abstract

There has been a rapid growth in the use of the internet in India in the 21st newlinecentury. Due to the extensive contribution of internet as a technology in the domains newlineof entertainment, education and commerce, modern life has become very comfortable newlineand its impact is felt in nearly all aspects of our lives. The excessive use of the newlineinternet has led to internet addiction among adolescents with many harmful newlineconsequences on their social, emotional and cognitive development. There are many newlinephysical effects of internet addiction such as, headaches, backaches, carpal tunnel newlinesyndrome, high blood pressure and psychological effects such as, depression, anxiety, newlineloneliness, stress and low self-esteem. Moreover, multiple research evidences have newlinealso recognized adolescents to be the most vulnerable age group. newlineThe present study adopts a 2 (adolescents with high internet addiction versus newlineadolescents with low internet addiction) x 2 (adolescent boys versus adolescent girls) newlinefactorial design. On the basis of the research gap the following three key research newlinequestions were formulated: (1) What is the impact of internet addiction on depression, newlineanxiety and loneliness of adolescent students? (2) Is there any significant difference newlineon the above-mentioned dimensions between high internet addicted and low internet newlineaddicted adolescent boys and girls? (3) Is there any relationship between depression, newlineanxiety and loneliness of adolescent students? Guided by the above research newlinequestions, objectives were formulated in order to investigate the impact of internet newlineaddiction. newline