Internet addiction and its relationship with happiness and life satisfaction among university students.

Abstract

The use of the internet is now becoming more widespread throughout the world and has become a necessity in assisting people with their daily tasks. However, excessive use of the internet can lead to addictive behaviors that can lead to many negative effects in life. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the internet addiction and its relationship with happiness and life satisfaction among Universiti Teknologi Malaysia undergraduate students. This study is a quantitative study that uses questionnaire as a research tool. A total of 375 undergraduate students completed a set of questionnaires comprising of Internet Addiction Test, Steen Happiness Index and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The results indicated that the level of internet addiction is moderate. Besides that, the results also showed that the students perceived themselves as having moderate level of happiness and life satisfaction. It was also found that there is a significant relationship between internet addiction and happiness. However, there is no significant level of relationship between internet addiction and life satisfaction. It is recommended that future research are conducted to obtain insights about the relationship between internet addiction and other constructs of positive psychology such as optimism, self-esteem or resilience to gather more evidence and suggest effective intervention methods.