PREVALENCE OF INTERNET ADDICTION AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AMONG THE ADOLESCENTS IN A SELECTED COLLEGE OF GUWAHATI, ASSAM

Abstract

A non-experimental descriptive study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Internet
Addiction and its association with psychopathology among the adolescents in a selected college
of Guwahati, Assam. The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of internet
addiction, to find out association between the internet addiction and its psychopathology, to find
out the association between the internet addiction and selected demographic variables. The
adolescents who were studying in class XI who were selected from Lalit Chandra Bharali
College, Maligaon, Guwahati by convenient sampling technique. Total 50 samples were
selected. Structured questionnaire were used to collect the data and analyzed according to the
objectives of the study. Using both descriptive and inferential statistics the study finding shows
that the 6% of adolescents were normally addicted to internet, 38% were mild addicted, majority
of the adolescents i.e 54% were moderately addicted and 2% were severely addicted. The study
findings revealed that there is no significant association between internet addiction and its
psychopathology and also no significant association between the internet addiction and selected
demographic variables such as age, gender, monthly income, residential place, purpose of using
internet, mode of access, duration of use, duration of use within 24 hours and exposure to
internet. Association of internet addiction and its psychopathology, internet addiction and
selected demographic variables was analyzed by chi square test with degree of freedom at
P<0.05 level of significance