Investigation of the Effects of Social Self-Confidence, Social Loneliness and Family Emotional Loneliness Variables on Internet Addiction

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between internet addiction levels and social loneliness, family emotional loneliness and lack of social self-confidence levels of high school students. The study was conducted with 328 high school students. One hundred and sixty-five of the participants (50,3 %) were females and 163 (49,7 %) were males. The data were obtained with Internet Addiction Scale, Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure, and Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale. The study results showed that internet addiction and lack of social self-confidence, social loneliness and family emotional loneliness were related. As the result of stepwise regression analysis, it was found that the variable which best predicts internet addiction is the lack of social self-confidence (R=0,649, R2=0,422), and that it was followed by social loneliness and family emotional loneliness respectively. The findings of the study were discussed in relation to the literature and some suggestions were presented.