Investigating the Role of Depression in Predicting Internet Addiction in High School Adolescents

Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the function of depression in prediction Internet addiction in high school students in Sari. Methods The research method was descriptive-correlation and its statistical population included all high school students who were studying in 2020 and the sample of this study chooses 100 people was selected by available sampling. Beck Depression Inventory and Kimberly Young Internet Addiction Questionnaire were used to collecting data. Pearson correlation analysis and multivariate regression were used to analyze the data. Results The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between depression (R = 459) and Internet addiction (P <0.01). The results of regression analysis also showed that the predictor variable (independent) of depression can predict (criterion variable) students' Internet addiction. In summary, we can infer from the results that depression has a significant relationship with Internet addiction. Conclusion Thus, depressed students were more likely to use the Internet addictively and students with low depression scores were less likely to use the Internet addictively.