Association of Personality Traits and Risk of Internet Addiction in Adolescents

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional, descriptive study analyzes the association between personality traits and internet addiction in adolescents. METHODS: The study was conducted with 328 adolescents attending two high schools in the Aegean region of Turkey. The data were collected using a sociodemographic information questionnaire, the Internet Addiction Scale and the Adjective Based Personality Scale from students who gave their informed consent to participate. Data were assessed by descriptive statistics, t tests, and logistic regression analysis, using SPSS software. RESULTS: The students had an average age of 16.43 +/- 1.47 years and 40.5% were female. The percentage of subjects at risk of internet addiction was 15.9% (n = 52), and 42.4% (n = 22) of them reported that the amounts of time they spent online was acceptable. We found statistically significant differences in the average subdimensional scores for extraversion (t = 2.310, p < .050) and openness to experience (t = 3.35, p < .001), and between students at risk of internet addiction (n = 52) and those who were not (n = 276). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who were found to be at risk of internet addiction nevertheless reported on the survey questionnaires that the amount of time they spent online was acceptable. The study determined that participants' risk of internet addiction was associated with their levels of extraversion and openness to experience.

Relationship Between Bullying and Health Problems in Primary School Children

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between bullying and exposure to bullying and the health problems in the primary school children. METHODS: This study was conducted on 92 parents and 92 students who were sixth grade students in two primary schools in Izmir. The data were collected using the Peer Bullying Scale Adolescent Form and the Identification of Health Problems Form. The data were analyzed through chi2 analysis and odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: About forty-nine percent of the students (48.9%) was male, 51.1% of them was female and the average age was 11.6 +/- 0.53 years. It was found that students who had high scores for being exposed to bullying were significantly more likely to experience headache, feeling bad, crying restlessness, nervousness, sleeping problems, dizziness; whereas students who had high bullying scores were significantly more likely to experience only poor appetite. CONCLUSIONS: Students exposed to bullying have more health problems than the bullying students. It is recommended that programs designed to prevent the negative effects of bullying be developed.

Correlation of serum cytokine levels with axial bone mineral density

Cytokine has been postulated to play a role in the pathogenesis of post-menopausal osteoporosis. To test this hypothesis we measured circulating levels of IL-1, IL-6,IL-8 and TNF-alpha in 98 post-menopausal women (30 age matched normal and 68 osteoporotic) with no vertebral fractures. Although the cytokine levels of patients were found in normal cut off values, the difference in cytokine levels between patients and controls was statistically significant for IL-1 and IL-8 (p < 0.01). In osteoporotic patients, none of the cytokines correlated with lumbar, femoral (neck) and total hip bone mineral densities and also with body mass index (p > 0.01). In conclusion, we were unable to demonstrate abnormalities of cytokines affecting bone resorption in peripheral serum of women with post-menopausal osteoporosis. However increased production of these cytokines may occur in the local environment of bone.