Internet Addiction Research in Turkey: A Content Analysis Study

Abstract

Internet usage, while facilitating human life, can cause problems such as Internet, social media, mobile phone, and video game addictions. The aim of the study is to determine the research trends of scientific studies on Internet addiction between the years 2010-2019 and to investigate the content of these studies. This study is a descriptive study aimed at revealing the current situation in Turkey related to Internet addiction. In this context, the studies included in the research have been analyzed using the method of content analysis. This research examines a total of 153 studies (40 graduate theses and 113 articles in the National Thesis Center, ULAKBIM, Google Scholar, Web of Science, ERIC, and EBSCO databases). According to the results, a significant portion of the publications on Internet addiction have been designed according to the relational research design, a quantitative research method. In these studies, the experimental research and qualitative research have been determined to be quite limited. The most frequently studied variable/ subject in Internet addiction studies is seen to be family relations (10.7%). This variable is followed by depression (9.6%), use of social networks (7.6%), social support (7.6%), and academic achievement (6.1%). As a result, quantitative and experimental methods have emerged as methods that should be included, as well as quantitative methods, in order to reach more comprehensive findings in studies on Internet addiction. In addition, studies on the primary and secondary school period are limited.