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The Relationships between Gender, Life Satisfaction, Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19: Does the Lockdown Matter?

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submitted on 2024-04-23, 10:42 and posted on 2024-04-23, 10:43 authored by Jensen Deutrom, Vasilis Katos, Mohamed Basel Al-Mourad, Raian Ali

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have attempted to reduce virus transmission by implementing lockdown procedures, leading to increased social isolation and a new reliance on technology and the internet for work and social communication. We examined people’s experiences working from home in the UK to identify risk factors of problematic internet use during the first lockdown period, specifically looking at life satisfaction, loneliness, and gender. A total of 299 adults completed the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire-Short-Form-6, UCLA-3 Item Loneliness Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale online. Through structural equation modelling, we found that loneliness positively predicted problematic internet use while gender had no effect. Life satisfaction and age positively predicted loneliness but had no direct effect on problematic internet use, suggesting loneliness fully mediated their relationship with problematic internet use. Our study serves as a benchmark study of problematic internet use among those working from home during lockdown conditions, which may be utilized by future researchers exploring longitudinal patterns post-pandemic.

Other Information

Published in: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031325

History

Language

  • English

Publisher

MDPI

Publication Year

  • 2022

License statement

This Item is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Institution affiliated with

  • Hamad Bin Khalifa University
  • College of Science and Engineering - HBKU

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