Abstract

Background. The significant expansion of the Internet over the past few decades has led to new public problems. A broad discussion of the development factors of Internet adduction helps to popularize the idea of the existence of an addictive risk, in particular in the adolescent’s population. The interpersonal characteristics of adolescents and family members can increase vulnerability to Internet addiction.

Objective. To analyze the characteristics of the family relations of adolescents in groups with different levels of Internet addiction.

Design. The study included 1,119 Internet users – 565 girls and 554 boys between 15 and 18 years of age studying in secondary school in Kopeysk, Chelyabinsk region.

Results. The split of the CIAS scale by final score allowed the sample to be divided into 3 subgroups: minimum, moderate and high risk/availability of IA (Internet adduction). There are significant differences in the way adolescents perceive the pedagogical practices of parents: participants with moderate risk of IA more often reported hostility (p < 0.001) and inconsistency (p < 0.001) on the part of the father, also characterized their mother as directive (p = 0.001), hostile (p < 0.001), inconsistent (p < 0.001) and critical (p = 0.010). The minimum risk group noted a more emotional relationship with the father (p = 0.024) and the mother (p = 0.005). In comparisons 1 and 3 the results repeated the inter-group differences of the first two groups, but with the exception of criticism, which was not significant. Groups 2 and 3 were distinguished by inconsistency (p < 0.001) and hostility (p = 0.018) on the part of the mother. Similar results were obtained in the construction of the correlation model. Through step-by-step regression analysis, factors that contribute most to the development of Internet addiction were determined – “Inconsistency (mother)” (p < 0.001).

Conclusion. The data show that there are some differences in the way in which parents perceive the pedagogical system in adolescents, with varying levels of Internet addiction.