The Phenomenon of Internet Addiction in Adolescents: Case of Albania

Abstract

Nowadays most of the youngest spend a considerable time in online communication or playing videogames in computer. Very often this can lead to an addiction to it. This is a new phenomenon in our country, but which is rapidly spreading. Aim. This study aim to give an overview about the phenomenon of internet addiction in Albania and also to examine if exist any relationship between internet addiction and contingencies of self - worth scale in adolescents. Method. The sample of the study consisted of 120 adolescents, aged 15-18, in the city of Tirana. The data was collected through the application of the “Internet Addiction Scale”, Kimberly Young, which was composed of 20 question items, and The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (Crocker et al., 2003) that consists of 35 items equally distributed on the seven types of contingencies. The Obtained data are analyzed with SPSS software. Results. The results show that adolescents in Albania have relatively high levels of internet addiction and the internet addiction correlates positively with two contingencies of the Self Worth scale, specifically with appearance and approval from others. This study is a part of a doctoral thesis.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p122