| Abstract [eng] |
Adolescents’ traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress reactions may be associated with various difficulties in daily functioning. One potential difficulty during adolescence is problematic internet use. However, the associations between traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress reactions, and problematic internet use in adolescent samples have been examined only to a limited extent. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of adolescents’ traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress reactions and to evaluate their associations with problematic internet use. The study included 107 adolescents aged 13–17 years (M = 14.66, SD = 0.74), of whom 54.2% were girls. The study employed a sociodemographic and online activities questionnaire, the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen (CATS-2), and the 9-item Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS-9). It was found that 85% of adolescents reported having experienced at least one traumatic event during the past two years. The risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was identified in 5.5% of participants, while the risk of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was identified in 7.7% of the adolescents participating in the study. A total of 13.7% of participants fell into the high-risk problematic internet use group, while 29.4% fell into the moderate-risk group. Adolescents who played computer games demonstrated higher problematic internet use scores. Associations between post-traumatic stress reactions and problematic internet use were identified. Avoidance, sense of threat, and affect dysregulation were associated with problematic internet use. It was also found that post-traumatic stress reactions mediated the relationship between traumatic events and problematic internet use. |
