Factors affecting internet use among university students in Sarawak, Malaysia: an empirical study

Abstract

Background: The internet has become an indispensable tool for communication, academic research, information and entertainment. However, heavy users of the internet lead to less confidence in social skills and the tendency to be isolated. The study aimed to assess the pattern of internet use and factors affecting problematic internet use among university students.Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted among the students of a university in Sarawak, Malaysia. A multistage cluster sampling technique was adapted to select the participants. Data were collected from 463 students by self-administered questionnaire. Hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis was done to determine the potential factors for problematic internet use.Results: The mean age of the students was 22 years, with a standard deviation of 1.6 years. Two-fifths (61.8%) of the students had no problematic internet use. However, 35.4% had moderate and 2.8% had severe problematic internet use. Hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis found that age of the students, year of study, duration of daily internet use and use of social networking like Skype appeared to be potential predictors of problematic internet use (p<0.05).Conclusions: This study was conducted in only one university, thus did not depict the overall scenarios of the country. The implications of the findings are still worth noting in the process of designing internet addiction studies among university students. Overall, this study has unearthed some useful insights which can serve as a guide to more elaborate studies.

Determinants of Internet Usage among Damanhour University Students

“…In this light, statistically significant relation was found between years of internet accessibility and level of internet addiction. This finding is congruent with the result of a study done by Rahman et al (2020) in Bangladesh who reported that more than half of the studied sample used the internet for less than 5 years with statistically significant relation between years of internet accessibility and level of internet addiction. In contrast, the finding of study done by Saied S et al (2016) in Egypt who reported that less than three quarters of the studied students used the internet for more than 5 years.…”

Addictive behaviours among university students in Malaysia during COVID-19 pandemic

“…In line with previous studies, time spent on online gaming and social media had increased during the lockdown period ( Fernandes et al, 2020 , Sun et al, 2020 ) In the present study, commonly used social media applications were YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Consistent with previous studies ( Rahman et al, 2020 ), students tended to use Facebook and Instagram as social networking agents, while WhatsApp became the primary tool for social communication during the lockdown period. YouTube was highly used, possibly as a medium for distance learning ( Kapahi et al, 2013 ) as the students were not able to return to the university for face-to-face teaching.…”

“…Our result on the Gaming Addiction Scale showed that only 4.5% (N = 8) of the participants could be defined as monothetic gamers (i.e., “pathological gaming”). A similar prevalence rate was reported by Rahman et al (2020) which found that students less frequently used the internet for online gaming in comparison with social media. A study by Lemmens et al (2009) also using the 7-item Game Addiction Scale reported that 2% of Dutch adolescent gamers met the gaming addiction criteria ( Lemmens et al, 2009 ).…”

Boredom and Distress Tolerance on Problematic Internet Use Among Public University Students

“…However, there is a lack of evidence for cause-effect relationships between PIU and these negative outcomes (Kubey et al, 2001;Skues et al, 2015). Research continues to suggest that university students who spend longer times on the Internet have been associated with poor academic performance (Caplan, 2002;Niemz et al, 2005;Rahman et al, 2020) and are a group in whom problematic Internet use may manifest as having a direct and quantifiable impact on academic performance (Skues et al, 2015).…”