Social network addiction among university students: A model test

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship among university students' social network addictions and the variables of virtual social support, life satisfaction, academic self-handicapping, fear of missing developments and school belonging. The study group of the quantitative phase of the research, which was conducted according to the explanatory sequential design of the mixed method, consisted of 1304 university students. Quantitative data were collected through the Social Network Addiction Scale, Virtual Social Support Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, Academic Self-Handicapping Scale, Fear of Missing Developments Scale and Sense of School Belonging Scale. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. According to the findings, the virtual social support variable has no significant effect on academic self-handicapping, while it has a positive and significant predictive effect on fear of missing developments and school belonging. Life satisfaction is positively and significantly predicted by the variable of school belongingness, but not significantly predicted by fear of missing out and academic self-handicapping. According to the last quantitative finding of the study, life satisfaction predicts social network addiction negatively and significantly. Participants' perceptions of social network addiction, virtual social support, life satisfaction, academic self-handicapping, school belonging and fear of missing out on developments were examined. A semi-structured interview form was used to collect the data. Four themes and 20 categories were obtained as a result of content analysis. The findings were discussed in line with the relevant literature. Based on the results of the study, recommendations were made to researchers, practitioners and policy makers.