Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
Hoda M. Nafee, Boshra A. Mohammed and Ahlam Y. Al-Hamdan
Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, Jeddah, king Saudi Arabia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Pediatr Ther
Internet nowadays is becoming an integral part of the daily life of the teenagers whom are the most users of internet at home or
school. Teenagers usually are between the ages of 11 and 18 years, they represent nearly 20% of total population in kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and Arab Republic of Egypt. The risk of developing misuse and widespread internet accessibility that facilitates
their using of favorite applications whenever and wherever they want which increase the negative consequences neither in
their psychological state as internet addiction or physical health as musculoskeletal discomfort. Many studies asserted that the
users of the internet should be aware of its positive and negative effects on their physical and psycho-social status, accordingly
the study aimed to identify teenagersā?? opinions about pros and cons of Internet Usage in relation to internet addiction.
A convenient sample of 668 teenagers who were recruited from intermediate and secondary school from both countries 331
teenagers from kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and 337 from Arab Republic of Egypt (ARE) were selected. A descriptive
correlation design was used. Two tools were used for data collection: the first one was a questionnaire sheet including student's
socio-demographic data and their opinions about pros and cons of the internet usage ; the second was internet addiction test
(IAT) by Young (1998) .Results showed that teenager opinions of internet pros for both Saudi and Egyptian was the highest
percentage to improve general knowledge, it was 32% and 48.7% respectively, the second was the developing sport activity, it
was 13.6% for Saudi and 31.4% for Egyptian. While the high Teenager's opinion of internet cons went to the moral corruption
it was 34.4% for Saudi and 59.1% for Egyptian. The result also revealed that internet addiction, nearly half of Saudi and
Egyptian students had mild and moderate internet addiction (47.7%, 45.3%, and 44.2%, 46.3%) respectively. While severe IA
was (0.9%) in Saudi one compared to (0.3%) in Egyptian teenagers. No, significant relation was found between both groups in
relation to internet addiction level (p=0.296). A significant relation was found between both groups in relation their opinions
about pros and cons of Internet Usage (P = <0.001), while no significant relation were found between Saudi and Egyptian
teenagersā?? opinions about pros and cons of internet usage in relation to the level of internet addiction except in cons of the
internet in the saudi group (P =0.017). Conclusion: this study concluded that the high level of teenagers was the awareness in
both groups about cons of internet usage compared to the pros which showed they were equal in levels of internet addiction.
Recommendations: this study recommended that the responsible bodies collaboration of education, youth and sport, health
and social affairs with the teenagersā?? families throughout an educational program and special websites to early detect, treat and
rehabilitate the teenagersā?? problems related to excessive internet usage and further studies to be conducted in this field on larger
sample size for both genders to identify the other factors related to internet addiction among teenagers.
Hoda Nafee is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Nursing at University of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and lecturer in Mansoura University at Arab Republic of Egypt .she teaches under and postgraduates programs in both countries and prefer working in clinical filed with patient in addition to her works as a teacher across multiple tracks in different nursing specialties. She holds Master and Ph.D. in pediatric nursing especially in neonatal nursing and works as a trainer in the Egyptian Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organization in an integrated management of childhood illness program. She works as a Member in a Board of directors of Nour AL-Hoda charitable Society, Ministry of Social Solidarity, Egypt.
E-mail: honafee68@hotmail.com