Influencia del acceso y el uso de internet, el móvil y los videojuegos sobre la salud mental y el rendimiento académico de los adolescentes extremeños

Abstract

The lack of training and awareness about the impact of the Internet on the social, cognitive and emotional development of adolescents can lead to an addiction problem. Consequently, the objective of this research is to analyze the influence of access to and use of the Internet, mobile phones and video games on the mental health and academic performance of 1,448 Secondary Education and Baccalaureate students from Extremadura. Through a quasiexperimental, cross-sectional and comparative design, abilities and difficulties in mental health were measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997). To determine the problematic use of the Internet, mobile and video games, the Questionnaire of Experiences Related to the use of Internet and Mobile (CERI and CERM respectively) (Beranuy et al., 2009) and the Questionnaire of Experiences Related to Video Games ( CERV) (Chamarro et al., 2014). The results confirmed that the student with greater pressure in the problematic use of the Internet has more mental health problems than the students with less experiences in this context. In addition, academic performance was positively influenced by access to computers, the Internet and mobile phones; in contrast, a daily Internet connection time of more than 5 hours is detrimental to academic success. The academic performance in Language and Mathematics is higher the lower the psychological dependence and evasion towards the video game. Finally, it is the boys who have the most negative experiences with video games.