Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Purpose of the Study
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Measures
2.2. Participants
2.3. Analysis Strategy
3. Results
3.1. Reliability
3.2. Frequency of Lock-Down-Related Ratings
- 73.2% of the sample were fully committed to the lock-down.
- 99.3% understood the importance of the lock-down and social distancing.
- 62.4% rated their relationship with those whom they were locked down with as excellent or good.
- 52.8% were spending the lock-down with six or more people.
- 5.6% were spending their lock-down in a room or a narrow apartment.
- 17.4% were spending their lock-down in a medium to large apartment.
- 10.6% were spending their lock-down in an apartment in their family house.
- 58.7% were spending their lock-down in a house.
- 7.8% were spending their lock-down in a farm, or in an urban area.
3.3. Frequency of Internet Use-Related Variables
- 13.7% spent two hours or less online daily.
- 18% spent five hours online daily.
- 21.7% spent six to seven hours online daily.
- 31.5% spent eight hours or more online daily.
- 31.9% worked or studied online regularly.
- 53.6% used social networks as their main internet activity.
- 26% had rarely or never carried out offline activities during the lock-down.
3.4. Correlations
3.5. Categorical Variables
- Being single.
- Poor job security.
- Smaller accommodation.
- Getting news about COVID from social media.
3.6. Regression Analyses
3.7. ANOVAS
4. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
- How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?
- How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time online?
- How often do you prefer the excitement of the internet to intimacy with your partner?
- How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
- How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?
- How often do your grades or school work suffer because of the amount of time you spend online?
- How often do you check your email before something else that you need to do?
- How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the internet?
- How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you do online?
- How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the internet?
- How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go online again?
- How often do you fear that life without the internet would be boring, empty, and joyless?
- How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are online?
- How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins?
- How often do you feel preoccupied with the internet when offline, or fantasize about being online?
- How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” when online?
- How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail?
- How often do you try to hide how long you’ve been online?
- How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others?
- How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are offline, which goes away once you are back online?
- I lack companionship.
- I feel part of a group of friends.
- I feel left out.
- I feel isolated from others.
- I am unhappy being so withdrawn.
- People are around me but not with me.
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Loneliness (Mean, s.d., p) | PIU (Mean, s.d., p) | |
---|---|---|
1. Marital status | ||
Single | 35.7 (3.8) p < 0.001 | 52.2 (16.0) p < 0.001 |
Married | 33.9 (3.7) | |
2. Job security | ||
Good | 34.5 (3.7) p < 0.005 | 48.0 (15.6) p < 0.005 |
Poor | 35.8 (3.9) | 52.7 (15.8) |
3. Accommodation | ||
Small apartment | 36.5 (3.8) p < 0.05 | 57.7 (15.7) p < 0.01 |
Medium apartment | 35.0 (3.7) | 47.8 (13.4) |
House | 34.5 (3.7) | 49.4 (16.7) |
Coefficients | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model | Unstandardized Coefficients | Standardized Coefficients | t | Sig. | |
B | Std. Error | Beta | |||
(Constant) | 37.881 | 1.670 | 22.681 | 0.000 | |
Age | −0.348 | 0.154 | −0.111 | −2.256 | 0.024 |
Marital Status | −0.286 | 0.287 | −0.047 | −0.997 | 0.319 |
Job security | 0.650 | 0.372 | 0.069 | 1.748 | 0.081 |
Good relationship with people in isolation | −0.047 | 0.008 | −0.244 | −6.062 | 0.000 |
Accommodation | −0.060 | 0.150 | −0.016 | −0.402 | 0.688 |
News source | 0.807 | 0.331 | 0.096 | 2.437 | 0.015 |
Other interests | −0.064 | 0.175 | −0.015 | −0.363 | 0.716 |
Hours on internet | 0.262 | 0.084 | 0.139 | 3.110 | 0.002 |
Model | Unstandardized Coefficients | Standardized Coefficients | t | Sig. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
B | Std. Error | Beta | |||
(Constant) | −26.486 | 8.060 | −3.286 | 0.001 | |
Age | −0.649 | 0.541 | −0.050 | −1.199 | 0.231 |
Marital Status | 2.616 | 1.000 | 0.103 | 2.615 | 0.009 |
Job security | 1.791 | 1.300 | 0.046 | 1.378 | 0.169 |
Good relationship with others in isolation | −0.064 | 0.028 | −0.079 | −2.265 | 0.024 |
Accommodation | 0.856 | 0.524 | 0.056 | 1.634 | 0.103 |
News source | 4.082 | 1.160 | 0.117 | 3.518 | 0.000 |
No other interests | 3.398 | 0.612 | 0.192 | 5.552 | 0.000 |
Hours on internet | 2.811 | 0.297 | 0.360 | 9.480 | 0.000 |
Loneliness | 1.148 | 0.147 | 0.277 | 7.806 | 0.000 |
Loneliness (Mean, s.e., p) | PIU (Mean, s.e., p) | |
---|---|---|
1. Quality of relationship with people in isolation | ||
Tertile 1 (poor) | 36.5 (0.48) p < 0.005 | 56.6 (1.78) p < 0.001 |
Tertile 2 | 35.0 (0.47) | 54.5 (1.73) |
Tertile 3 (good) | 34.0 (0.47) | 50.5 (1.74) |
2. Hours on internet | ||
Tertile 1 (low) | 34.5 (0.47) p < 0.005 | 46.3 (1.75) p < 0.001 |
Tertile 2 | 35.2 (0.45) | 52.6 (1.66) |
Tertile 3 (high) | 35.8 (0.51) | 62.7 (1.87) |
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Alheneidi, H.; AlSumait, L.; AlSumait, D.; Smith, A.P. Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down. Behav. Sci. 2021, 11, 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11010005
Alheneidi H, AlSumait L, AlSumait D, Smith AP. Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down. Behavioral Sciences. 2021; 11(1):5. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11010005
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlheneidi, Hasah, Loulwah AlSumait, Dalal AlSumait, and Andrew P. Smith. 2021. "Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down" Behavioral Sciences 11, no. 1: 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11010005
APA StyleAlheneidi, H., AlSumait, L., AlSumait, D., & Smith, A. P. (2021). Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down. Behavioral Sciences, 11(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11010005