Why Are Turkish University Students Addicted to the Internet? A Moderated Mediation Model.

Orhan Koçak,İlayda Yılmaz,Mustafa Z Younis

doi:10.3390/healthcare9080953

Orhan Koçak, İlayda Yılmaz + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9080953

Copy DOI

Abstract

Internet addiction has become a significant problem that primarily affects young people. It has an essential effect on the individual’s self-perception and assessment of their competencies. This study aimed to reveal whether there is a significant relationship between the level of internet addiction of university students and their age and self-esteem. For this purpose, internet addiction and self-esteem scales were used in addition to questions such as age, gender, the purpose of internet use, and internet daily usage time. We used a quantitative research method to obtain cross-sectional data from 400 Turkish young people using online surveys. Correlation, regression, mediation, and moderation analyses were performed using SPSS and the PROCESS macro plugin for data analysis. Internet addiction was significantly associated with self-esteem, gender, age, and daily internet usage. In addition, we discovered that self-esteem and daily usage time played a mediation role in the effect of the age variable on internet addiction. Moreover, the moderation roles of social networks, gender, and location in the impact of self-esteem on internet addiction were determined. With this study, we understood that as age increases, self-esteem triggers the decrease of internet addiction. In this sense, policies should be developed to increase self-esteem among young people to ensure the conscious use of the internet.

Highlights

The internet makes life easier, unnecessary and excessive use may lead to internet addiction
When the research findings were examined, it was determined that there is a negative relationship between internet addiction and self-esteem
It was concluded that self-esteem and daily internet usage play the role of mediation in the impact of the age variable on internet addiction

Summary

Introduction

The internet makes life easier, unnecessary and excessive use may lead to internet addiction. Widespread internet usage can rapidly turn into an addiction. Individuals find the opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts more comfortably in the virtual environment. Self-esteem, which is defined as how individuals evaluate themselves positively or negatively and the value they attribute to themselves, is higher in some individuals and lower in others. It was understood that individuals with low self-esteem prefer to spend more time on the internet instead of socializing outside [1]. Individuals’ wasting a long time on the internet can lead to internet addiction. Internet addiction negatively affects self-worth [2], and individuals enter a cycle in which life is negatively affected

Objectives

Results

Conclusion