Risk factors in the problematic use of Internet and phone in Spanish adolescents

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between maladaptive use of Internet and mobile phone and various imbalances in social skills, stress management, self' esteem and life satisfaction, and to explore differences in such uses/abuses according to socio demographic variables, such as gender and age. To do this, using a two-stage sampling of convenience with intra-group randomized downsampling, was selected 200 students (104 boys and 96 girls) aged between 12 and 17 years (M=14.34; DT = 1.637) enrolled in several secondary schools in Principado de Asturias (Spain). According to the results, it has been found that the imbalances in stress management skills predict the most likely to misuse in both technologies. Also, difficulties in managing stress and lack of communication skills, predict problematic uses of Internet -related compulsive habits, self control problems and conflicts generated by feelings. It was confirmed that girls and older adolescents suffer more problems related to mobile phone use problematic. The implications of such problematic uses are discussed and abounds in the desirability of promoting prevention and psychosocial intervention. (C) 2016 Sociedad Universitaria de Investigacion en Psicologia y Salud. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).