Internet Addiction and Psychosocial Functioning among University Students

Abstract

In the past decade, research has accumulated signifying that excessive Internet use can lead to the development of behavioral addiction. Internet addiction has been measured as a danger to mental health and excessive internet usage has been connected to a variety of harmful psychosocial consequences. The research aims to investigate internet addiction and psychosocial functioning among university students. The study was descriptive. The research objectives included exploring the relationship between Internet Addiction and psychosocial functioning among university students, finding out the statistical difference between psychosocial functioning and duration of daily internet use, and studying the demographical variation such as age, gender, etc among university students influencing Internet Addiction and psychosocial functioning. To achieve these objectives, stratified random sampling was used to collect data from male and female university students of 2 public and 2 private universities in Islamabad. The results show an association between internet addiction and psychosocial function among university students. It further elaborates that male university students are more internet-addicted than females whereas females show higher psychosocial functioning. The result also illustrates that young university students are more internet addiction and psychosocial functioning than other ages. It further explains that a private university shows more internet addiction and psychosocial functioning than a public university.