Evaluation of Coping Strategies of Male Patients, Being Treated in Internet Addiction Outpatient Clinic in Turkey

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare the coping strategies of male internet addicts with a healthy control group. Methods: Fifty male patients presented to our internet addiction outpatient clinic who were clinically diagnosed as internet addict and 50 healthy male without internet addiction who had similar sociodemographic characteristics have been included in the study. The patients were assessed by sociodemographical and clinical interview form, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Coping Inventory (COPE). Results: The mean daily duration of internet use, IAT scores, and BDI scores in the study group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<0.001). The scores of coping strategies as problem focused, using instrumental social support (p<0.05), active coping, planning (p<0.001), emotional focused, positive reinterpretation and growth, turning to religion (p<0.001), use of emotional social support, focusing on and venting of emotions (p<0.05) were significantly higher, while the scores of humour, dysfunctional, mental disengagement, denial, behavioral disengagement, alcohol-drug disengagement were significantly lower in the control group (p>0.05). After controlling the confounding effect of depression; the mean scores of coping strategies as humour, mental disengagement, denial, alcohol-drug disengagement, and total dysfunctional were not significantly different between the groups anymore (p>0.05), but mean acceptance score in the control group became significantly higher (p<0.05). Conclusions: There are some differences among patients with internet addiction in terms of coping strategies. Our study is one of the first studies that have investigated coping strategies among patients with internet addiction. Considering coping strategies may be helpful when evaluating patients with internet addiction.