Association Between Psychological Well-Being and Problematic Internet Use Among University Students of Bangladesh
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Association Between Psychological Well-Being and Problematic Internet Use Among University Students of Bangladesh Md. Sayeed Akhter 1 & Md. Abdul Khalek 2 Received: 25 October 2019 / Revised: 24 February 2020 / Accepted: 30 April 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract This study examined the problematic Internet use (PIU) among the university students of Bangladesh and its association with loneliness, social interaction anxiety, and happiness as potential constructs of psychological well-being. Data were collected from 432 university students using a structured questionnaire in a face-to-face interview, and cross-sectional study design was employed to investigate the objective of the study. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that psychological well-being accounted for a significant increase of the variance in PIU scores. Loneliness and social interaction anxiety as constructs of psychological well-being were significant positive predictors of PIU and loneliness exhibited strongest association with PIU. Moreover, result showed that male participants were more problematic Internet user than females. Therefore, the findings of the study provide insight for the teachers, university authorities and policy makers, planners, and practitioners in this regard to design and implement preventive programs for the university students of Bangladesh who are susceptible to PIU. Keywords Problematic Internet use . Psychological well-being . Loneliness . Social interaction anxiety . University students
Introduction The Internet, most eminent technological advancement of modern days (Odacı and Çıkrıkçı 2014), is increasingly becoming an important resource in our daily life and in society (Gámez-Guadix et al. 2013; Burnay et al. 2015). It is an indispensable tool which facilitates interpersonal communication (Gámez-Guadix et al. 2013), information retrieval, academic research, entertainment, and so on (Frangos et al. 2011). In keeping with the global technological development, Internet use has also been accelerated in Bangladesh, with the number of Internet users rising from 0.1 million in 2000 to 96.176 million at the end of July 2019 (Islam and Hossin 2016; BTRC 2019). Despite these widely perceived expansion and benefits, the Internet is not without its disputes. The
* Md. Sayeed Akhter [email protected] Md. Abdul Khalek [email protected] 1
Department of Social Work, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
2
Department of Statistics, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
preeminent risks are the development of Internet dependency, maladaptive, and excessive Internet use (Kormas et al. 2011; Cheung et al. 2018). In recent years, numerous studies have reported this unhealthy, excessive and maladaptive Internet use by different terminologies, such as Internet addiction (Douglas et al. 2008; Ak et al. 2013), pathological Internet use (Morahan-Martin and Schumacher 2000), Internet dependency (Lin and Tsai 2002), and more frequently as problematic Internet use (PIU) (Davis et al. 2002; Caplan 2010; Oda
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