Title

Perceived Stress, Sensation Seeking, And College Students' Abuse Of The Internet

Keywords

College students; Internet abuse; Internet addiction; Internet usage patterns; Perceived stress; Sensation seeking

Abstract

College students (n = 140) were examined to test whether sensation seeking and perceived stress would predict abuse of the Internet. Previous studies have found that disinhibition, boredom susceptibility, and total sensation seeking scores were related to Internet abuse (Chaney & Chang, 2005; Lin & Tsai, 2001). Because stress has been documented to have a negative effect on students (Pierceall & Keim, 2007), and may be linked to Internet use (Lavoie & Pychyl, 2001), it was tested as a possible predictor of Internet abuse. This study also analyzed abuse of the Internet for sexual purposes, because sexuality is prevalent online, and college students are in an age of sexual exploration. Results of stepwise regression analyses revealed that disinhibition and total perceived stress were predictive of Internet abuse for sexual purposes, and perceived hopelessness and boredom susceptibility were predictive of Internet abuse for non-sexual purposes. Implications for students and Internet abuse are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

11-1-2010

Publication Title

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume

26

Issue

6

Number of Pages

1526-1530

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.020

Socpus ID

77956191513 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/77956191513

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