Investigation of technology addiction and family life satisfaction in university students from social work perspective

Technology has become one of the fundamental components of both individual and social life. Indeed, technological tools accompany us almost everywhere and at every moment of daily life. From our shopping habits to social interactions, and from education to leisure activities, we benefit from the opportunities provided by technology across a wide spectrum. However, these opportunities occasionally lead to uncontrolled and excessive use. As we live in an era characterized by constant interaction with technology, this interaction increasingly transforms into technological addiction. Consequently, technological addiction has emerged as one of the leading behavioral addictions of our time. The family institution, as old as human history itself, stands as one of the fundamental sociological structures that continuously undergoes change and transformation. The family constitutes the smallest unit of society. Family life satisfaction refers to the subjective evaluation derived from the expectations of family members regarding their roles and relationships within the family, and the extent to which these expectations are fulfilled. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of technological addiction on family life satisfaction among university students from a social work perspective. In this context, the study compared students' levels of technological addiction and family life satisfaction, while also investigating differences between demographic characteristics and both family life satisfaction and technological addiction levels. The research was conducted with 382 university students enrolled at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University. A quantitative research design was adopted, and data were collected using a personal information form, the Technology Addiction Scale (TAS), and the Family Life Satisfaction Scale (FLSS). Data were analyzed using SPSS 27. To determine whether the scales used in the study exhibited normal distribution, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied. Since the scores did not show normal distribution, differences between two groups were examined using the Mann-Whitney U test, while differences among more than two groups were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H test. The relationship between the Technology Addiction Scale and the Family Life Satisfaction Scale was examined through Spearman's correlation analysis. In addition, demographic variables of students were used to predict technology addiction and family life satisfaction, and hypotheses were tested. The findings revealed that university students demonstrated moderate levels of technological addiction, while their family life satisfaction was high. A negative correlation was found between students' levels of technological addiction and family life satisfaction (r = -0.308, p = 0.000). In other words, among students at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, as technological addiction increased, family life satisfaction decreased. The findings obtained in this study reveal the effects of technology addiction on family life satisfaction. Furthermore, it will provide significant contributions to the knowledge base of the social work discipline in the areas of addiction and family well-being and will serve as a resource for developing social work policies.