Comparing Internet Addiction in Students With High and Low Socioeconomic Status Levels

Abstract

Internet addiction varies according to the geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic conditions that an individual experiences. In adolescence, uncontrolled Internet use opens the way to cases of clinical-level addiction, and the likelihood of this addiction is thought to be closely related to individuals and family's socioeconomic levels. This research investigates adolescents whose families have a high socioeconomic level (266 students) and those whose families have a low socioeconomic level (187 students). This study applies the Internet addiction scale, which was developed by Gunuc and Kayri. The study is grouped according to similarities of addiction levels using cluster analysis. Internet addiction levels in the sample with high socioeconomic levels were calculated as M = 75.507; SD = 29.307. Afterwards, addiction levels were divided into three groups in accordance with two-step clustering analysis. While the first group located 74 students (27.8%) who were not addicted, M = 43.81, the second group was composed of 121 students (45.5%) who were at risk, M = 1.75, and the third group was composed of 71 students (26.7%) who were addicted, M = 114.94. The level of Internet addiction in the sample with a low socioeconomic level was obtained as M = 68.588, SD = 21.424. In accordance with findings of the two-step clustering analysis, this sampling was collected into three groups based on their similarities. The first group (n = 91; 48.7%) did not have addiction, (x) over bar = 51.14; individuals in the second group (n = 79; 42.2%) were observed to be at risk, M = 78.72, and the third group (n = 17; 9.1%) showed addiction, M = 114.88. While elevated dependency was calculated at a rate of 26.7% in students with a high socioeconomic level, the rate of elevated dependency was calculated as 9.1% for the group with a low socioeconomic level. Additionally, this study discusses the possible impact of different socioeconomic levels on Internet addiction.