Abstract:

The problem of youth aggression inside and outside cyberspace is still very relevant for psycho-pedagogical investigations. In some cases it is connected with developing internet addiction and its behavioral effects. Such destruction forms hindrances for the constructive objectives of education and development. Therefore, analysis of interrelation of internet addiction and aggression of college students is an important step on the way to the correction of cyberaggression.

This paper is aimed at identifying and describing the nature of interrelation of internet addiction and aggression in the college environment. The author analyses the results of theoretical and empirical research in this context. Basing on the international and Russian investigations he suggests that aggression is the effect of the internet-addicted behavior. Yet, there does not exist a shared vision on the positive interrelation of the factors under examination.

The methods employed are Cook-Medley hostility scale test, Chen internet addiction scale, the IBM SPSS Statistics 24 software package. Sample: N=100 Saratov State University Students (males 46%). Average age М=21 (age range18– 28). High school graduates 65 %, professional college graduates 28%, university graduates 7 %. Sample population identified correlation between the two compared indexes r=0.761, р<.001). The diagnostic results identified five subgroups of the respondents: lacking internet-addicted behavior with high aggression level, medium (tending to low) aggression level with internet addiction tendency, medium (tending to low) aggression level without internet addiction tendency, high aggression level and internet addiction tendency, high aggression level and evidently formed internet addiction. These groups are identified in order to develop psycho-educational correction programs and to carry out additional investigations using a number of methods aimed at evaluation of personality characteristics and virtual destructive practices in the cyberspace. Thus, we identified that aggression level positively correlates with the virtual addiction. This fact may demonstrate that the internet-addicted behavior is highly likely to serve as a basis for aggression development in an individual. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a cognitive component of internet-addicted behavior prevention into university curriculum.

Keywords:

Social activity, youth, internet addiction, hostility.