Problematic Internet Use in Adolescents:Role of Identity Styles, Emotional Autonomy, Attachment, Family Environment and Well-Being

Internet is occupying an important place in the life of today's youth. While listing the advantages of internet, the negative side of this technology in the form of excessive use among the adolescents cannot be refuted. Considering the changes an individual experiences during this phase, the present study was conducted to find the role of identity style, emotional autonomy, attachment, family environment and well-being in predicting PIU among adolescents. A sample of 611 (Boy s = 208, Girls = 303) in the age group of 13-18 years were assessed using PIUQ (Demetrovics et al., 2008), Identity Style Inventory (Berzonsky, 1992); Emotional Autonomy Scale (Steinberg&Silverberg, 1986); lPPA(Armsden&Greenberg, 1987); FES (Moos&Moos, 1983); and FWBS (1994). The results obtained indicate that the selected variables contributed 28.5% and 45.9% variance in PIU among boys and girls respectively.