Vol. 9, Issue 2, Part A (2023)

Internet use has increased rapidly and has become a major part of daily life. However, the advancement of internet technology not only brings benefits, but also negative results. Of these negative aspects, excessive internet use is increasing dramatically. Some Psychologists and educators have indicated the potential negative impact from excessive use and related physical and psychological problems. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the difference in psychopathology between adolescents with internet addiction and without internet addiction. A between group research design with purposive sampling was opted for the study. The sample consisted of adolescent students aged between 19-21 years pursuing their degree course in Government College. Initially the adolescents were administered internet addiction scale to screen for internet addiction and then two groups were considered i.e. one with internet addiction and the other without internet addiction (average use of internet). Further both the groups were administered Symptom Checklist 90-R a self-report questionnaire that is designed to select the psychological symptom patterns across 9 dimensions. The analysis of data was done by computing t test. The results indicated that the group with internet addiction had significantly high pathology on 6 dimensions of Somatisation, Obsessive-compulsive, Interpersonal sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety and Hostility when compared to the group without internet addiction. The study concludes that internet addiction may lead to many psychopathologies and hence a check on usage time, purpose of surfing internet etc. is needed.