Internet Addiction and Stressors Causing Internet Addiction in Primary School Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive and Cross-Sectional Study from Turkey

In this study, we aimed to examine the status of internet addiction in children and the stress factors causing it during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study was a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study sample included 154 parents of 7- to 10-year-old students. Participant information form and the Family-Child Internet Addiction Scale were used as data collection tools. The data of the study were collected with a questionnaire (via Google Forms) between July 15 and December 15, 2020. Of the children participating in the study, 90.3% (n=139) showed no symptoms and 9.7% (n=15) showed limited symptoms in terms of internet addiction. The total mean score that the children obtained from the scale was found to be 24.6±16.9. It was observed that the frequency of a child playing games with parents, the parents watching news about COVID-19 with the child, and the child being frequently warned about the COVID-19 precautions increased the children’s internet addiction scores (p<0.05). This study demonstrated that if the pandemic process was prolonged, internet addiction in children could be further triggered.

Cite this article as: Aközlü, Z., Kolukısa, T., Öztürk Şahin, Ö., & Topan, A. (2021). Internet addiction and stressors causing internet addiction in primary school children during the COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive and cross-sectional study from Turkey. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 8(1), 65-72.