The Investigation of Relationship Between Problematic Internet Usage and Loneliness, Life Satisfaction and Perceived Social Support on Faculty of Educational Science Students

The purpose of present study is to investigate the relationship between problematic internet usage and various psychosocial features like loneliness, life satisfaction and perceived social support on Department of Educational Science Students. For this purpose, 463 pre-service teacher (327 women and 136 men) that were studying in Bursa Uludag University Department of Educational Sciences on 2017-2018 educational term have participated in this research. In this study, Problematic Internet Usage Scale (PIUS), UCLA Loneliness Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale and Personal Information Form were used as measurement tools. In this study, Mann Whitney U Test, Kruskal Wallis-H Test, Spearman-Brown Rank Differential Correlation Analysis techniques were used for data analysis. These analyzes were performed in SPSS 24th package program. In the study, a significant positive relationship was found between problematic internet usage and loneliness levels of the students in the Faculty of Education. There is a negative relationship between problematic internet usage of the students in the Faculty of Education and life satisfaction. Also, there is a negative relationship between problematic internet usage of the students in the Faculty of Education and perceived social support levels. Problematic internet usage levels have been found statistically different by department and the duration spent on internet whereas it was not changed statistically by gender, and level of bachelor's degree. The findings of the research were discussed within the framework of relevant literature and recommendations for future research were presented. Keywords: problematic internet usage, loneliness, life satisfaction, perceived social support