OBJECTIVE: In the last decade, using social network sites (SNSs) has grown and become an integral part of daily routine for adolescents. As known, ADHD is a major public health problem for all addiction types, including the Internet and SNSs addiction. Our aim was to examine the effect of ADHD, impulsivity types, using motivations, internalizing and externalizing symptoms on Facebook (FB) overuse and FB addiction among adolescents.
METHODS: Participants were recruited from ADHD and non-ADHD adolescents who were applied to the child and adolescent psychiatry and have an active FB account. We used FB Use and Motivations Form, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), Bergen FB Addiction Scale (BFAS) and Conners-Wells’ Adolescent Self-Report Scale-Long form (CASS:L).
RESULTS: Our results indicated that ADHD adolescents have more fake FB accounts, have their own accounts for longer time, are using FB for more motivation types and FB overuse is more frequent than in non-ADHD counterparts. According to the degree of FB use, we have shown that adolescents with FB overuse behaviour have more externalizing symptoms and have higher CASS:L and Barrat impulsivity scores than others. Risk factors for FB overuse are: having a fake FB account and having higher ADHD index scores; risk factors for FB addiction are: higher attentional impulsivity, higher conduct problems scores and higher ADHD index scores.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study have improved our understanding about the risk factors of a new behavioural addiction type among adolescents.