Internet Addiction and Life Satisfaction Among High School Students: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Study

This study examined the relationship between internet addiction and life satisfaction among high school students and investigated whether the subdimensions of internet addiction were associated with life satisfaction. The study was conducted in the Gebzedistrict of Kocaeli. Using a cross-sectional correlational design, data were collected during the fall semester of the 2024–2025 academic year from 386 high school students (84.7% female, 15.3% male) attending Anatolian, Science, and Vocational high schools using an online questionnaire containing the Internet Addiction Scale and the Life Satisfaction Scale. The results showed that the overall level of internet addiction was below the moderate level (mean = 86.15, SD = 20.13), with the highest scores observed in the Withdrawal and Difficulty in Control subdimensions. Within the present sample, Two-Step Cluster Analysis identified four sample-specific clusters. Of these, 84.2% of participants were classified into the threshold and risk clusters, 10.9% into the addicted cluster, and 4.9% into the non-addicted cluster. These classifications represent sample-specific cluster memberships rather than clinically validated diagnostic categories. The mean life satisfaction score was found to be at a low-to-moderate level (mean = 2.73, SD = 0.85). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the internet addiction subdimensions collectively explained 6.6% of the total variance in life satisfaction, with the Withdrawal subdimension showing the strongest unique negative association with life satisfaction (B = −0.15, β = −0.25, p < .001). Overall, higher levels of internet addiction were associated with lower life satisfaction among high school students. These findings highlight the importance of considering withdrawal- related characteristics when examining the association between internet addiction and adolescents’ life satisfaction. Cite this article as: Keskin, Y., Üyesi, Ö., & Poyraz, C. (2026). Internet addiction and life satisfaction among high school students: a cross-sectional correlational study. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 23, 0054, doi: 10.5152/hayef.2026.25054.