Exploring Associations between Internet Addiction and Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Youths of Assam: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

Background: The internet is an integral part of everyone’s life. Internet addiction refers to the compulsive need to spend a lot of time on the internet, to the point where relationships, work and health suffer. Adolescent internet addicts often suffer from severe psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, compulsivity, fear that life without internet would be boring, empty and joyless as well as feeling of loneliness and social isolation. Therefore, the study explores the relation of internet addiction with stress, anxiety and depression among youths of different districts of Assam. Method: A descriptive correlational research study design was applied. The snowball and randomized sampling technique was applied to select 232 sample (male:121 and female:111) from various district of Assam. Internet Addiction Test and DASS-21 were used to assess the level of internet addiction in relation to stress, anxiety and depression among the youths. To derive the results, Spearman’s Rank correlation (rho) and Mann Whitney U-test and Chi-square was applied. Results: The results showed that there is a moderate positive correlation with internet addiction and stress, anxiety and depression. The results also revealed that there was disparity between psychological distress and internet addiction among male and female youths as well as rural and urban youths. Conclusion: It can be concluded that more the usage of internet more the probability of having stress, anxiety and depression.