Abstract
Objective:
Nowadays, internet addiction or pathological internet use has become popular research subject. It is possible to be faced with the news in the printed and mass media about individuals who experience the problems related to internet use. The objective of the paper is to review all the published papers on internet addiction in adolescents and thus, to designate whether internet addiction is a risk factor for adolescent mental health.
Method:
Various databases were searched by using key words "adolescent", "internet" and "mental health" and the published papers were reached.
Results:
Adolescents have become more frequent users of internet. In addition, internet addiction symptoms which are defined for the university students and adulthood are also experienced by adolescents. As a result of this situation, some adolescents may exhibit the symptoms of the internet addiction or pathological/unhealthy internet usage gradually, and thus, their daily lives also may be affected negatively.
Discussion:
The developmental needs of adolescents is the most determining factor of unhealthy/problematic internet use. The fundamental developmental need of adolescence period is identity achievement. The identity achievement for adolescents play a major role in addiction, especially in internet addiction significantly. Therefore, the internet addiction on adolescents should be taken into consideration by all mental health workers, educators and parents and preventive studies should be planned.
Keywords: Adolescent, internet, mental health, internet addiction.
