Relationship between anxiety and internet addiction among adolescent students from urban area

Abstract

The internet is one of the most widely used means of communication for connecting people all over the world in association with the rapid escalation of consumed internet content. The wider availability of smartphones and tablets with internet access is a new challenge which requires immediate solutions for providing a healthy future to every adolescent. High comorbidity of internet addiction with psychiatric disorders has been reported enormously. Particularly anxiety disorders are linked with Internet addiction which is the main concern of academicians as well as health professionals. Adolescence is very much important stage of human development. Illness or disorder in Puberty may last into adulthood, if not treated properly. The present study was to find out the relationship between Internet addiction and trait anxiety among adolescent male and female students, mainly from urban areas. Sample was selected mainly from urban area and Data was collected through the purposive sampling method. The total number of participants was finally 100 (50 males and 50 females), between the age of 13-19 years. Information Schedule and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were given to every participant to collect Socio demographic data as well as trait anxiety of participant. Participants who had moderate to high trait anxiety were administered Internet Addiction Test to assess their addiction for Internet. The data were analysed and scores were calculated for STAI and IAT by following the scoring method. Then Mean, SD and Pearson’s R had been done by using SPSS. It had been found from the analysis that correlation between internet addiction and trait anxiety among male and female exist.