Abstract

TERROSO, Lauren Bulcão  and  ARGIMON, Irani Iracema de Lima. Internet addiction and social skills in adolescents. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.1, pp.200-219. ISSN 1808-4281.

This study aimed to verify the association between SS and internet addiction (IA), the association between sociodemographic variables and SS, as well as find the predictors of DI, in a sample composed of 482 students, randomly selected from a city in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. We used the following instruments: Inventário de Habilidades Sociais para Adolescentes and the Internet Addiction Test. The results indicated that adolescents addicted to internet had greater difficulty in expressing social skills behaviors in relation to the total score of SS and the following classes: self-control, assertiveness, affective approach and social resourcefulness. It has also been observed that having a lower total repertoire of SS increases the odds ratio of having IA. These results suggest that a poorer SS repertory is associated with IA. Thus, although the internet provides benefits to teens, too much usage is associated with having some classes of underdeveloped SS. However, we point out that in online relationships there are opportunities to express certain classes of HS which can be considered an important type of social contact, especially for young.

Keywords : adolescent; assertiveness; internet addiction; social skills.

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