The relationship of self-perception, personality and high school type with the level of problematic internet use in adolescents

As adolescents spend a substantial part of the day using internet, they constitute one of the risk groups for problematic internet use. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between problematic internet use and the self-perception, personality type, gender of adolescents, and how these relationships varied depending on the type of high school the students attended. This study was conducted with 771 students studying at Anatolian high schools, science high schools, arts high schools, vocational high schools for girls, vocational technical high schools, trade vocational high schools, and common high schools in the city of Kars, Turkey. In this study, 433 (56.2%) of the participants were girls, while 338 (43.8%) were boys. The forms, scales and questionnaires administered during the study included the Personal Information Form, the Problematic Internet Use Scale, the Self-Perception Scale for Adolescents, and Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis and the one way ANOVA test. The present study examined whether personality type (extraversion, neuroticism, lie and psychoticism), self-perception (romantic appeal, physical appearance, social acceptance/close friendship, behavioral conduct, athletic competence and job competence), gender, and duration of internet use can predict problematic internet use. Based on the study results, it was observed that gender, duration of internet use, lying type personality, neuroticism, psychoticism, romantic appeal, physical appearance and behavioral conduct were significant predictors of problematic internet use, while positive attributes such as extraversion, athletic competence, job competence, and social acceptance/close friendship were not. Moreover, it was determined that the type of high school led to significant differences with regards to problematic internet use among students, and that students at technical high school were more prone to problematic internet use.