Relationship Between Problematic Internet Use and Alexithymia Among Adolescents

The present study investigates the relationship between Problematic Internet Use and Alexithymia among the non clinical sample of adolescents. The study was conducted on 90 high school students. Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Young (1998) for Problematic Internet Use and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) by Bagby, Parker, and Taylor (1994) were administered. Adolescents scoring >50 on IAT were considered as Problematic Internet Users (PIU) and those scoring <50 were taken as control group. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and t-test was used for analysis. The results revealed significant and positive relationship of Internet Addiction with Alexithymia (Difficulty Describing Feelings, Difficulty Identifying Feelings & Externally Oriented Thinking & Total Alexithymia). The results further indicated significant differences for Alexithymia between PIU group and control group.