Given the widespread usage of social media and the saturation of social network sites (SNSs), many students
and instructors have integrated technology into both social and educational life to enhance their learning experiences. Yet, non-educational use of social media brings drawbacks and also causes undesirable situations. Especially for young people, multi-tasking, like using SNS during their class sessions, creates cognitive disabilities
as well as low academic performance. In this study, we have examined the relationships between SNS addiction
patterns (SNS intensity and network size) and academic achievement (grade point average, or GPA) of 711 college students in Turkey. We have also sought to assess whether there is a correlation between gender and SNS
addiction patterns. A questionnaire has been used for data collection. Our findings clearly show that the majority of our participants have used a smartphone for more than 5 years, with Instagram the app whose reputation
supersedes that of other SNSs. Surprisingly, we found no significant relationship between academic success and
SNS addiction patterns, though the study confirms a gender-discrepancy with regard to SNS addiction patterns.
Females spend more time on SNS than males, whereas males have more online friends than do females. The
reason for this disparity may derive from their different uses of SNS. Thus, further studies may concentrate on
different aspects of this issue with more factual and objective data to reveal the real impact of SNS on our lives.
Conclusions, suggestions, and research limitations have also been discussed.
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Based on data from mixed designed research, the purpose of this study was to develop design elements of
a public communication campaign on the fight against substance addiction. A focus group was conducted
with mothers from the city of İzmir, Turkey. Based on the focus group findings, a survey was conducted by
distributing a questionnaire to 403 mothers in İzmir. Focus group qualitative data revealed that mothers
were generally aware of the risks regarding substance addiction; however, they do not relate the issue to
their own children. Further, mothers were shown to be the people closest the children in their families.
Survey results revealed that mothers from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more knowledgeable
regarding substance addiction. A cluster analysis showed that mothers with less education and lower income
levels had lower perceptions about substance addiction risk for school environments, neighborhoods, and
the city, while mothers with more education and higher income levels had higher levels of such perceptions.
Considering the results of our study, mothers were chosen as the main target for the public communication
campaign. Additionally, increasing social awareness about substance addiction was decided as the campaign’s main objective.
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Problematic Internet use not only has negative effects on adolescents’ development and social lives but also
may yield negative mental health outcomes. Taking into account that it may damage adolescents’ school and
family lives, it is clear that identifying and preventing factors associated with problematic Internet use is very
important on both the individual and societal levels. The purpose of the present study was to explore the associations between problematic Internet use, daily hassles, and social isolation among high school students. The
study group comprised high school students from various socioeconomic levels in Ankara, the capital city of
Turkey. Data were collected from 371 high school students: 189 female students (51%) and 180 male students
(49%). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine variables predicting high school students’ levels of problematic Internet use. The results showed that the variables of being ignored, exclusion, and
daily hassles significantly predicted high school students’ problematic Internet use. Suggestions were made in
light of the current literature.
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This study aimed to adapt the Generic Phubbing Scale (GPS) to Turkish culture and to examine the phubbing levels of university students concerning various variables. Acceptable goodness-of-fit indices were
found in the first-order confirmatory factor analysis (x2
/df=2.47, GFI=0.92, IFI=0.92, CFI=0.95, NFI=0.92
AGFI=0.89, TLI=0.94, and RMSEA=0.067) and the second-order confirmatory factor analysis (x2
/df=2.61,
GFI=0.92, IFI=0.95, CFI=0.95, NFI=0.92 AGFI=0.89, TLI=0.93, and RMSEA=0.070) performed to test the
construct validity of the GPS. Later, the significance of the upper and lower 27% groups was analyzed using
an independent t-test. The analysis results showed that the scale has the power to measure the desired characteristics. Chronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be a=89. The study examined
university students’ phubbing levels in terms of various variables and performed a hierarchical regression
analysis to explore whether the variables of smartphone addiction, fear of missing out, and boredom proneness were predictive variables for university students’ phubbing addiction levels. According to the results,
these three variables were found to be significant predictor variables for the phubbing levels of university
students.
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Lack of policy-oriented research in Turkey could be attributed to the perceptions of researchers on existence of
an alcohol use problem in the population, methodological difficulties of conducting alcohol research, and the perceived sensitivity of the topic in the population. This descriptive quantitative study was carried out before the conduct of the International Alcohol Control Study (IAC) in Turkey, with an aim to assess the knowledge, attitude,
and behaviors on alcohol research of 142 adults aged 18 years and above, who have the experience of consuming
alcohol, to determine their preference for interviewer characteristics, interview place, and research institution.
More than half of the participants (54.9%) stated that alcohol consumption studies were necessary, and a majority (74.7%) was willing to participate in such a study. The participants believed that the alcohol consumers from
their own social environments would express their drinking status openly (72.5%) and report their consumption
accurately (70.4%). Use of political or religious symbols by the interviewers did not seem to influence responses for
more than half of the study subjects, although a non-negligible group have not agreed. The participants favored
World Health Organization as the research institution (53.2%) and medical students (62.9%) as the interviewers.
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This qualitative study was carried out to determine the burden of care on Turkish caregivers of patients with
substance use disorder. The sample included relatives of 42 patients hospitalized in the Akdeniz University
Alcohol and Drug Addiction Research and Application Center. Individual in-depth, open semi-structured
interviews were used for data collection. Moreover, demographic questions and an interview guide with
questions were also used. According to the results of this study, the following themes were evaluated: difficulties experienced, coping, and needs. The findings showed that substance abuse has adverse consequences
and negatively affects both the patients and their relatives in terms of economic, psychological, and social
aspects. Furthermore, because of the social stigma of substance abuse, the families receive very limited social
support from the environment. This weakens the well-being of the family members and increases intrafamily
conflicts. We conclude that ensuring the well-being of the caregivers of patients with substance use disorder
is useful in maintaining a successful treatment of addiction. Thus, policymakers should include the relatives
of patients with substance use disorder in prevention and intervention programs to increase the effectiveness of the interventions.
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This study aimed to investigate the mediational role of smartphone addiction in the relationship between
emotion regulation and subjective happiness. Participants were 320 university student volunteers (167 women
and 153 men) from two state universities in Turkey. They completed a self-report questionnaire about emotion regulation, smartphone addiction, and subjective happiness. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and
bootstrapping were applied to test the mediational role of smartphone addiction in the relationship between
emotion regulation and subjective happiness. The results indicated that reappraisal predicted lower smartphone addiction scores and higher subjective happiness scores. On the contrary, suppression predicted higher
smartphone addiction scores and lower subjective happiness scores. In addition, smartphone addiction proved
to be a partial mediator between emotion regulation strategies and subjective happiness. Therefore, the results
of this study support the evidence for the impact of emotion regulation on subjective happiness through smartphone addiction.
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Addiction relapse is one of the most essential aspects of addiction. This study aims to explain the male
addicts’ experiences on predictors of relapse to drug use based on a multitheory model (MTM). This study
was directed qualitative content analysis that was conducted on 17 addicts referred to addiction treatment
centers in Hamadan City, Iran, in 2019. The samples were recruited using the purposive sampling method.
Semistructured, individualized interviews were used to collect data, and then, data were analyzed using a
theory-based content analysis approach. Data analysis led to the extraction of 19 main codes that were
categorized in six predetermined themes of MTM constructs consisting of participatory dialog, behavioral
confidence, changes in physical environment, emotional transformation, practice for change, and changes
in social environment. The main predictors of drug use relapse were emotional transformation, changes in
social environment, and changes in physical environment. Findings of this study showed that the unpleasant
emotions, peer pressure, and access to drugs were the most critical factors in increasing drug use relapse.
Therefore, designing appropriate interventions to prevent relapse of drug use based on the results of this
study appears to be useful.
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Drug dreams, i.e., dreams in which drug-addicted patients use or attempt to use drugs, are a well-documented clinical phenomenon in drug addiction. These dreams offer a useful way to understand the vicissitudes
of drug craving in patients who are drug addicts as well as their ability to cope with it. Authors consider
drug dreams as a valuable clinical tool in the treatment of drug addiction. Although pathological gambling
disorder is a form of behavioral addiction that has several aspects in common with substance addiction,
gambling dreams (i.e., dreams about gambling) are seldom described in scientific literature. This study aimed
to provide the first systematic investigation on the presence of “gambling dreams” among abstinent pathological gamblers. A total of 10 individuals who arrived consecutively for outpatient treatment at the Centre
for Drug Addiction were evaluated on the basis of South Oaks Gambling Scale. They also completed a
questionnaire on gambling dreams. The results showed that most pathological gamblers report gambling
dreams. These dreams can be considered in terms of frequency, content, and relationship with craving in the
same way as drug dreams for drug addiction. Further studies might also shed light on the clinical utility of
gambling dreams for treatment of pathological gamblers.
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This study was conducted to determine the hookah smoking profiles among university students and their
perceptions of the health effects of hookah. The stratified random sampling method was used, and each
school was accepted as a layer. The number of students to be included in the sample from each class was
determined by dividing the total number of students to be taken from the school by the number of classes
in that school. After determining the number of students who would be taken from each class, the students to be included in the sample were selected from the student lists using a simple random sampling
method. The sample of this study included 625 students from a university. The data collection tools were
(a) a personal information form containing the sociodemographic characteristics of the students, the
characteristics of smoking and hookah smoking behavior, and (b) the perception scale of the effects of
hookah use on health. The data were collected by the researchers between February 5 and May 5, 2018,
by distributing the questionnaires and scale forms to the students in the classroom environment and
having them fill the forms. The data obtained were evaluated in the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences 22.0 program using chi-square, significance test of the difference between the 2 means, variance
analysis, Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and logistic regression analysis. In this study,
it was found that the frequency of hookah use was 65.2% in male students and 34.8% in female students,
and the mean score of the students from the perception scale of the effects of hookah use on health was
60.83±9.96. The mean score of the students who do not smoke hookah (62.53±9.70) was higher than that
of those who smoke hookah (57.45±9.83), and the difference between them was statistically significant
(p<0.05). It was found that students who did not use hookah knew better about the harmful effects of
hookah than those who used hookah. It was also found that smoking cigarettes increases the possibility
of smoking hookah by 3.05 (confidence interval, 1.11-8.33) times. As a result, the frequency of smoking
hookah was found to be high among the students, and the students who smoke hookah were less aware of
the adverse health effects of hookah use.
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