Аннотация:
Aim: identification of the behavior and social status of rural adolescents aged 15-17 years who use the Internet daily for a long time (LTDUI), as indicators of identifying adolescents "at risk" for Internet addiction.
Methods. The study was conducted in 2016-2017; it covered 17 regions from six federal districts of the Russian Federation. The sampling in each region was carried out in two stages with using alternating sampling and continuous methods. The total number of students surveyed was 18,222 people, among them 8,208 boys and 10,014 girls. To study the socio-hygienic portrait of LTDUI adolescents from the total population, 9425 adolescents who use the Internet daily for 3 hours or more (3520 boys and 5905 girls) were selected. Comparison of girls and boys in terms of social status and behavior was carried out according to the χ2 criterion.
Results. The results of the analysis of LTDUI adolescents showed the following typical features of Internet using for this group: motivation, neglect of their physiological needs for the sake of using Internet, family conflicts and problems resulted from such adolescents’ behavior, the appearance of functional somatic disorders and psychological discomfort in the absence of the Internet. It was found that one out of four LTDUI teenagers (25% of boys and 28% of girls) had problems with long-term use of the Internet: poor performance at school, missing school lessons, conflicts with parents, difficulties in communicating with other people. Every fourth boy and more than 40% of LTDUI girls reported about health disorders, such as headache, insomnia, redness and pain in the eyes, pain in the back and hands, and numbness of the fingers.
Conclusion. The following socio-hygienic characteristics are typical for teenagers of the LTDUI group: psychological discomfort in the absence of the Internet, decreased performance at school, conflicts with parents, neglect of night sleep and eating, and the appearance of functional somatic disorders. These manifestations combined with daily long-term use of Internet indicate a high attachment to Internet and a high potential risk of developing Internet addiction.
Ключевые слова:
adolescents, rural areas, Internet, risk, addiction.