Uso problemático de internet : hábitos de uso, necessidade de pertencimento e sintomas psicopatológicos

Abstract

Introduction: Internet advancement provided many opportunities and practicalities in everyday life. However, there are ways of using it that can cause harm in different contexts of the individual's life. Although there are no established criteria to analyze this problem, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), attempt to identify problematic functioning of the use of the Internet. Objective: The general objective of this dissertation was to verify if there is a relationship between problematic internet use, sociodemographic data, internet usage habits, need for belonging, feeling of loneliness, impulsivity; and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. For this, two empirical studies were carried out. The first aimed to investigate the relationship between problematic use of the internet and the need to belong, feelings of loneliness, symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and level of impulsivity and to assess whether these variables are predictors of problematic use of the internet. The second characterized the habits of internet use (devices used, time of use, use of games, social networks and perception of losses) and verified its relationship with age, education, income, children, cohabitation and problematic use of the internet. Also, they analyzed whether these variables were predictors of problematic use. Method: This is a cross-sectional quantitative study, in which 711 adults with internet access were evaluated online. The instruments used in data collection were: sociodemographic data sheet, internet usage patterns questionnaire, Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire - PIUQ, Belonging Needs Scale - ENP, Solitude Scale - UCLA, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - DASS-21 and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - BIS-11. The description of the data was carried out using absolute (n) and relative (%) frequencies for qualitative variables and by means and standard deviations for quantitative variables and cluster analysis. To verify the association between the variables evaluated, Spearman's correlations were used, according to the result of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. To verify the predictive power of the variables, Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was performed. Results: The sample consisted of 711 adults with an average age of 30.55 years (SD = 12.59), 70.2% women, 50.8% single and 76.9% had no children. 51.6% used social networks for personal and professional use, 34.7% only for personal use, 1.3% only for professional use and 2.1% answered that they do not use social networks. It was found that the need for belonging, the feeling of loneliness, the symptoms of stress and the level of impulsivity were predictors of problematic internet use. Together, the symptoms of stress, level of impulsivity, need for belonging, and feeling of loneliness explained 25.8% of the variance of problematic internet use. Two clusters were formed from the initial sample using the Two-Step Cluster method in which the result of problematic internet use was used. Thus, it was found that the participants in cluster 2 had higher averages of problematic use of the internet, greater need for belonging, felt more lonely, were more impulsive and had more symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. Regarding Internet usage habits, 86.4% of participants used the Whatsapp application, 75.9% Facebook, 70.3% Instagram, 23.5% Twitter,5.2% Snapchat and 8.9% claimed to use other social networks. Also, 90.5% responded that noticing that their posts received likes increased their self-esteem. Significant negative correlations were found between problematic internet use and education, income, age, and the number of children. It was also found that the greater the abusive use of the internet, the greater the time connected, the greater the use of social networks and posts that do not express the individual's true feelings, increased self-esteem when verifying the number of likes in a post made, the greater perception that your internet usage habits are bad and the frequency of losses from internet usage is higher. The multiple linear regression test was used to verify whether sociodemographic data and internet usage habits were predictors of problematic internet usage. The results also indicated that the frequency of losses due to internet use, an attempt to change usage habits, spending the night on the internet and increased self-esteem when checking the number of likes in a post made were predictors of problematic internet use, explaining 31, 8% of the variance. Conclusion: From the results of this dissertation, it can be concluded that psychological aspects, such as stress symptoms, level of impulsivity, need for belonging, the feeling of loneliness are predictors of internet abuse. Aspects of usage habits are also predictors of abusive use, such as the frequency of losses from using the internet, attempting to change usage habits, spending the night on the internet and increasing self-esteem for likes. The problematic use of the internet is related to feelings of loneliness and the presence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. The presence of these emotional difficulties would lead to problematic use of the internet in the search for satisfying emotional needs such as belonging and raising self-esteem. Also, the more the individual observes losses and fails to change their internet usage habits, spends the night connected and has high self-esteem for the likes received, the greater the abusive use of the internet. As tanned as a reinforcement, its abusive behavior is maintained. Consequently, this behavior increases the likelihood of damaging your face-toface relationships and activities of daily living.