Investigation of psychological well-being of university students in terms of problematic internet use and various demographic variables

This study was carried out to investigate university students? psychological well-being in terms of various variables. It was examined whether university students? psychological well-being levels differ according to gender, main purpose of internet use, daily internet usage time, the most frequently time period of internet usage, field of study, type of accommodation, the place where the students access to the internet the most frequently and problematic internet use. In addition, the predictive role of problematic internet use, gender, main purpose of internet use, daily internet usage time and the most frequently time period of internet usage in psychological well-being was examined. From the data collection students were determined who use the internet problematically and it was examined whether their psychological well-being levels differ according to gender, main purpose of internet use, daily internet usage time, the most frequently time period of internet use and field of study. The predictive role of problematic internet use, gender, main purpose of internet use, daily internet use time and most frequently used period of time for internet on psychological well-being of students who use the internet problematically was also examined. Participants of the study were 1927 students attending to the various faculties of Anadolu University in 2012-2013 academic year. The data were collected by Psychological Well-being Scale, Problematic Internet Use Scale, and Personal Information Form. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one way ANOVA, correlation and stepwise regression. Before applying statistical techniques, the assumptions of these techniques were investigated. According to findings of the study it was determined that psychological well-being of female students is significantly higher than the psychological well-being of male. In the sense of main purpose of internet use, psychological well-being of students who use internet to get information is significantly higher than students who use internet for entertainment and communication. Psychological well-being of students who use internet usually daytime is significantly lower than psychological well-being of students who use internet usually in the evening and at night. It was determined that university students who get education on the field of technical sciences have higher psychological well-being than university students who get education on the fields of social and physical sciences. It was found that psychological well-being of university students who use internet problematically is significantly lower than the students who do not use the internet problematically. It was seen that psychological well-being of university students do not vary significantly in terms of daily internet usage time, type of accommodation and the place where the students access to the internet the most frequently. As a result of stepwise regression analysis, it was found that problematic internet use, gender, the most frequently time period of internet usage and the purpose of internet use are significant predictors of psychological well-being. It was found that psychological well-being of female student who use internet problematically is significantly higher than male students who use the internet problematically. It was seen that psychological well-being of students who use internet problematically in terms of daily internet usage time vary significantly. On the other hand, psychological well-being of university students who use internet problematically in terms of main purpose of the internet use, the most frequently time period of internet usage and the field of study not vary significantly. As a result of stepwise regression, it was found that problematic internet use and gender are significant predictors of psychological well-being of university students who use internet problematically; and main purpose of internet use, the most frequently time period of internet usage and daily internet usage time are not significant predictors. The results were interpreted on the basis of psychological well-being literature and some suggestions were made for future researches.