Abstract

RODRIGUEZ PUENTES, ADRIANA PAOLA  and  FERNANDEZ PARRA, ANTONIO. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TIME SPENT ON INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKING AND MENTAL HEALTH IN COLOMBIAN ADOLESCENTS. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.17, n.1, pp.131-140. ISSN 0123-9155.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the amount of time spent in social networking and the presence of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in adolescents. Participants were 96 seventh grade students aged between 11 and 15 years who were attending schools in Bogotá, Colombia. An ex-post facto design was used and the amount of time spent in social networking was divided into three categories: high, medium and low. The instruments included a sociodemographic questionnaire especially designed for this purpose, the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire by Cassidy & Asher (LSDQ for its English acronym), the Youth Self- Report by Achenbach (YSR, for its English acronym), the Child Depression Inventory by Kovacs (CDI, for its English acronym) and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales by Olson, Portner & Lavee (FACES III, for its English acronym). Findings showed that participants with a greater amount of time spent on social networking had more externalyzing disorders (aggressive behavior, rule breaking and attention deficits) than students in the other two categories. The need for future research that stresses the positive factors that the use of Internet social networking can have on adolescents' development is discussed.

Keywords : Internet; social networking; adolescents; internalizing behavior; externalizing behavior; positive qualities.

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