Internet Use and Quality of Life: The Multiple Mediating Effects of Risk Perception and Internet Addiction.

Bo Qian,Yuxiang Hong,Mengyi Xu,Mengmeng Huang

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031795

Abstract

The impact of internet use on quality of life (QoL) has become an increasing focus of academic research. This paper aims to explore the internal influencing mechanisms of internet use (i.e., leisure-oriented internet use (LIU); work-oriented internet use (WIU)) on QoL, with a focus on the multiple mediating effects of risk perception and internet addiction. We constructed a theoretical framework from a psychological perspective and tested the hypotheses using hierarchical regression analysis with a sample of 1535 participants. The results showed that: (1) LIU had a positive effect on QoL, while WIU did not have a significant impact on QoL; (2) both risk perception and internet addiction had a negative influence on QoL; (3) risk perception positively impacted internet addiction; (4) risk perception and internet addiction had multiple mediating effects on the relationship between internet use and QoL.

Highlights

Health researchers, clinicians, and policymakers currently regard quality of life (QoL)as an indicator when quantifying the health problems of human society [1,2]
Our study aims to explore the effects of different types of internet use on QoL, especially the internal influencing mechanisms resulted from risk perception and internet addiction
The results showed that Cronbach’s α of risk perception was 0.83, internet addiction was 0.763, and QoL was 0.711, which presents a high internal consistency

Summary

Introduction

Clinicians, and policymakers currently regard quality of life (QoL)as an indicator when quantifying the health problems of human society [1,2]. Previous studies found that many factors lead to an improvement or deterioration in QoL, such as personality, work environment, leisure, and social capital [6,7]. With technological advancement and digital transformation, the use of the internet has been ubiquitously dominated in our work and life in various ways. Literature [8] presented three functions of internet use: social services, information services, and leisure services. Literature [9] proposed four types of internet services: work, entertainment, social interaction, and family use. There is limited understanding of the internal influencing mechanism that different forms of internet use impact on people’s QoL, and how this applies to the development of sustainable and healthy internet use practices that can help frame more valid institutional interventions benefitting the contemporary netizen and the digital human society

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion