Internet Addiction and Youth Coping Strategies

Abstract

The paper focuses on social and psychological aspects of human-computer interactions and studies risk factors for the total impact of the digital virtual environment on its perception and regulation of personal behavior. The problem of Internet addiction among young people and the strategy of its overcoming is emphasized. Empirical data of the psychological testing of the St. Petersburg State Transport University students is analyzed. The authors' aim is to educe interdependency between cyber- and Internet-addiction and coping strategies that capture the psycho-technique of young people's readiness to the difficulties of life in the modern digital culture. The study is based on the concepts of cognitive psychology, which highlight the specific mental factors of network reality perception and strategy to overcome life difficulties. The research method is a comparative analysis of coping strategies in different groups of students, differentiated by gender. Psychological testing is used as an empirical method, which reveals a picture of the relationship between the Internet and cyber dependence and coping strategies in self-regulation of youth groups' behavior. IBM SPSS Statistics 19 is used in test data processing. The study finds that the impact of Internet addiction on the development of positive coping strategies is negative. The obtained results can be used to model the algorithm of students' adaptation to the conditions of professional activity in the digital environment.