The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families
The goal of the study was to identify specific personality characteristics of adolescents who have a problem with 'internet addiction', as well as the characteristics of their parents' personalities and of thefunctioning of their families. The sample consisted of 60 adolescents of bot...
Main Authors: | , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology
2015-01-01
|
Series: | Psihološka Istraživanja |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0352-7379/2015/0352-73791502165D.pdf |
_version_ | 1818840566800056320 |
---|---|
author | Dukanac Vesna Džamonja-Ignjatović Tamara Milanović Marko Popović-Ćitić Branislava |
author_facet | Dukanac Vesna Džamonja-Ignjatović Tamara Milanović Marko Popović-Ćitić Branislava |
author_sort | Dukanac Vesna |
collection | DOAJ |
description | The goal of the study was to identify specific personality characteristics of adolescents who have a problem with 'internet addiction', as well as the characteristics of their parents' personalities and of thefunctioning of their families. The sample consisted of 60 adolescents of both genders, agedbetween 15 and18. There were 30'internet addicts' belonging to the clinical group and 30 participants from the general population as the control group. Also, 120 parentswere examined; there were 30 parent couples of eachof the two groups of adolescents. The following measures were used in the research: Young's Internet Addiction Test -IAT, the Belgrade Adolescent Personality Inventory - BAPI, the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revisited -TCI-R (for the assessment of parental personality) and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale -FACES IV.The results indicate that adolescents with internet addiction difficulties exhibit a high degree of impulsiveness, low persistence, and immaturity in the personality domains which regulate responsible, goal-directed and co-operative behaviour. The fathers of adolescents from the clinical group were highly ambitious and less available to their children, while their mothers were more impulsive and prone to change versus continuity, which means that they were also less accessible to their children, albeit in a different way than the fathers. All dimensions associated with the positive aspects of family functioning, such as Cohesiveness, Flexibility, Communication and Satisfaction were lower in the clinical group, while the dimension of Chaotic relations was higher. The results have shownthat the parents of adolescents from the clinical group have formed a specific kindof disengaged and distant parenting style that has resultedin avoiding behaviours of adolescents and their withdrawal into the 'virtual world'. These findings could have a significant role in understanding the originsof internet addiction, planning prevention programs and defining guidelines for effective therapeutic treatment. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-19T04:12:14Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-9c729b888bfc4d93b6424ed12ca3fab2 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 0352-7379 2560-306X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-19T04:12:14Z |
publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
publisher | University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology |
record_format | Article |
series | Psihološka Istraživanja |
spelling | doaj.art-9c729b888bfc4d93b6424ed12ca3fab22022-12-21T20:36:23ZengUniversity of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of PsychologyPsihološka Istraživanja0352-73792560-306X2015-01-0118216518010.5937/PsIstra1502165D0352-73791502165DThe characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their familiesDukanac Vesna0Džamonja-Ignjatović Tamara1Milanović Marko2Popović-Ćitić Branislava3University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine - Institute of Mental Health, Belgrade, SerbiaUniversity of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, Serbian/aUniversity of Belgrade, Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, Belgrade, SerbiaThe goal of the study was to identify specific personality characteristics of adolescents who have a problem with 'internet addiction', as well as the characteristics of their parents' personalities and of thefunctioning of their families. The sample consisted of 60 adolescents of both genders, agedbetween 15 and18. There were 30'internet addicts' belonging to the clinical group and 30 participants from the general population as the control group. Also, 120 parentswere examined; there were 30 parent couples of eachof the two groups of adolescents. The following measures were used in the research: Young's Internet Addiction Test -IAT, the Belgrade Adolescent Personality Inventory - BAPI, the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revisited -TCI-R (for the assessment of parental personality) and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale -FACES IV.The results indicate that adolescents with internet addiction difficulties exhibit a high degree of impulsiveness, low persistence, and immaturity in the personality domains which regulate responsible, goal-directed and co-operative behaviour. The fathers of adolescents from the clinical group were highly ambitious and less available to their children, while their mothers were more impulsive and prone to change versus continuity, which means that they were also less accessible to their children, albeit in a different way than the fathers. All dimensions associated with the positive aspects of family functioning, such as Cohesiveness, Flexibility, Communication and Satisfaction were lower in the clinical group, while the dimension of Chaotic relations was higher. The results have shownthat the parents of adolescents from the clinical group have formed a specific kindof disengaged and distant parenting style that has resultedin avoiding behaviours of adolescents and their withdrawal into the 'virtual world'. These findings could have a significant role in understanding the originsof internet addiction, planning prevention programs and defining guidelines for effective therapeutic treatment.http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0352-7379/2015/0352-73791502165D.pdfinternet addictionadolescentstemperamentcharacter traitsfamily functioning |
spellingShingle | Dukanac Vesna Džamonja-Ignjatović Tamara Milanović Marko Popović-Ćitić Branislava The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families Psihološka Istraživanja internet addiction adolescents temperament character traits family functioning |
title | The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
title_full | The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
title_fullStr | The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
title_full_unstemmed | The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
title_short | The characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
title_sort | characteristics of internet addiction adolescents and their families |
topic | internet addiction adolescents temperament character traits family functioning |
url | http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0352-7379/2015/0352-73791502165D.pdf |
work_keys_str_mv | AT dukanacvesna thecharacteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT dzamonjaignjatovictamara thecharacteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT milanovicmarko thecharacteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT popovicciticbranislava thecharacteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT dukanacvesna characteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT dzamonjaignjatovictamara characteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT milanovicmarko characteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies AT popovicciticbranislava characteristicsofinternetaddictionadolescentsandtheirfamilies |