Social use of internet in adolescents: Relationship with cyberbullying and levels of physical activity

Abstract

An unsuitable and abusive use of the Internet and the technologies that support it (e.g. mobile phones and computers) can be related to the appearance of different problems and risks during adolescence, such as addiction and cyberbullying (CB) (Armstrong et al., Saling, 2000; Carbonell et al., 2012; Tokunaga, 2010; Tsitsika et al., 2015). The objective of this research is to know about the use of social networks (SN) and communication applications, the degree of intrapersonal (IntraA) and interpersonal (InterA) addictions caused by the problematic Internet use, as well as the possible relations between dependence, CB and physical activity (PA) levels determined, in an objective manner, through the use of accelerometers. Results show that there is an IntraA of M = 2.21 (SD = 0.62) and an InterA of M = 1.97 (SD = 0.53), as it is the need of continuously checking the SN and WhatsApp (WAPP), the use of the Internet as a way of escaping from problems and the withdrawal from other activities in order to being connected to the Internet for a longer period of time. There is a relation between the Internet addiction and CB but not between the different levels of PA performance and these variables.