Life Satisfaction, Internalizing and Externalizing Disorders in Social Networks Users and Non-Users

Today, Internet-based social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and Instagram are very popular among the youth and adolescents. Some of the negative impacts of overuse of social networks by adolescents are addiction to these networks, jealousy, depression and severe stress as well as some problems in social interactions in the real world, feeling of loneliness and dissatisfaction with life. Attempts have been made in this research to study the internalizing and externalizing disorders as well as the level of adolescents’ satisfaction with life in proportion to their use of social networks. The sample of the present study consisted of 20 youths of 14-17 years of age who had consulted three Tehran City consultation centers regarding the complaint of their parents or their own complaint against overuse of the Facebook or Instagram. The sampling method was accessible targeted one. The control and experimental groups filled up the following two questionnaires: Achenbakh Self Report Questionnaire (YSQ) for assessing the internalized and externalizing disorders; and Diener Satisfaction with life questionnaire for assessing life satisfaction. The findings show that the adolescents of the experimental group compared to those of the control group significantly suffer from sings of internalizing disorders. Regarding externalized disorder, there were no differences between the controlled and the experimental group. Moreover, the group that used social networks, compared to the control group, showed lower life satisfaction. Clinical and preventive requirements have been discussed in this paper.