The effects of covid-19 pandemic and lockdown on internet, smartphone use and emotional-behavioral problems in adolescents: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective: Young people had adverse emotional and behavioral effects due to the pandemic and restricted measures, which caused social isolation, spending more time online with smartphones, tablets, and computers. We aimed to investigate adolescents' emotional/beha-vioral problems and internet/smartphone usage features during this pandemic and to compare the findings with the pre-pandemic features.Method: The sample consisted of 57 adolescents (27 males, 30 females). Data were collected at two-time intervals: before the COVID-19 pandemic [T1] and during the COVID-19 pandemic [T2]. All participants fulfilled the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), The Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV).Results: The results indicated that both internet and smartphone use duration significantly increased at T2(P < 0.001). With regards to SDQ, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity problems, prosocial behaviors, and total difficulties subscales were significantly worse at T2 than T1 (P < 0.05). Additionally, significant correlations were found between IAT and SAS scores and SDQ behavioral problems, hyperactivity-inattention subscores, and total difficulties scores (P<0.001). Finally, according to regression analysis hyperactivity-inattention problems increased the risk of problematic internet use (P < 0.05).Discussion: We objectively observed internet and smartphone use increase and relations with emotional and behavioral problems among adolescents during the outbreak of Covid-19. Therefore, these results should be carefully kept in mind while developing health policies for the long-term effects of the pandemic, whose duration is not yet known.