Comparing the Effect of Participation in the Art and Sports Courses on Depression and Internet Addiction in Adolescents aged 13 to 17 Years

Adolescents are the main body of experts in different scientific, technological, and artistic fields in every country. A healthier society needs healthy adolescents, and psychological health is an important dimension of adolescents` health. Although the Internet has brought many valuable changes to people's lives, some users are becoming addicted to this tool and using it incorrectly. They have been intensely preoccupied with using the Internet, spent excessive time online, felt that the world without the Internet is boring, and decreased social interaction with real people. These activities are commonly referred to as Internet addiction. Adolescents are considered a high–risk group for Internet addiction. In addition to internet addiction, depression is a common problem in today's adolescents which can be considered part of the negative effects of Internet addiction or caused by other unrelated reasons. Therefore, effective and enjoyable interventions for this age group seem necessary. The present study aimed to compare the effect of participation in art and sports courses on depression and Internet addiction in adolescents aged 13 to 17 years.

The present quasi–experimental has a pretest–posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all those who referred to 5 centers of summer arts and sports classes. Among these people, 45 adolescents (21 girls and 24 boys) with a mean age of 14.88 ± 1.44 years were purposefully recruited. Based on the results of the Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1998) and the Beck Depression Inventory–II (Beck et al., 1996), they had mild Internet addiction symptoms and mild to moderate depression. The subjects were then divided into 3 groups of 15 people each: one group participated in a painting class (arts group), and the other group participated in girls' aerobics class and boys' soccer (sports group) for 4 weeks (3 sessions of 1 hour per week). Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used for data analysis. In this way, the descriptive indices of average and standard deviation were used to show the characteristics of the subjects. At the level of inferential statistics, 1–way analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, and Bonferroni post hoc test were performed in SPSS version 22 software at a significance level of α=0.05.

The analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between all three groups in the posttest scores of depression (p=0.002). This test also confirmed a significant difference between the three groups in the posttest scores of Internet addiction (p<0.001). The Bonferroni post hoc test showed that participation in sports courses had a significant effect on improving depression and reducing Internet addiction compared to the control group (depression: p=0.002; Internet addiction: p=0.004). In addition, this test showed a significant improvement in depression and a reduction in Internet addiction among adolescents 13 to 17 years of age after attending an art course (depression: p=0.019; Internet addiction: p<0.001). In addition, the results showed that participation in art course than sports course had a more significant effect on reducing subjects' internet addiction (p=0.038).

Based on the research findings, participating in art and sports courses reduced Internet addiction and improved depression in adolescents 13 to 17 years of age, and art course had a more positive effect on decreasing Internet addiction.