Flow experience, stress and mindfulness as predictors of internet addiction among university students in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Avinaash, Thiruselvam, Lim, Shu Jing
• Format: Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: BF Psychology; H Social Sciences (General); HT Communities. Classes. Races; T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4537/1/FYP_PY_AT_2022.pdf; http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4537/

Internet addiction (IA) is identified as technological addiction of frequent Internet use in conjunction with behavioural responses linked to co-morbid disorders. Internet addiction is also referred to as Problematic Internet Use (PIU), computer addiction, Internet dependency compulsive Internet use and pathological Internet use. However, there are limited studies on the predictive effects of (a) flow experience; (b) stress; (c) mindfulness on Internet addiction among university students in Malaysia. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the predictive effects of (a) flow experience; (b) stress; (c) mindfulness on Internet addiction among university students in Malaysia. There were 182 target participants who were recruited to participate in the cross-sectional study through the online survey method that utilised purposive sampling. Though, only 122 of the responses received was used for data analysis. The selected participants had specific criteria to be fulfilled which were (a) Malaysian university students; (b) participants that who have provided consent that also fall under the first criteria. The results yielded shows that only mindfulness as a negative predictor to Internet addiction as the significant hypothesis, while flow experience and stress were non-significant predictors to Internet addiction. In conclusion, the finding from this study has provided understanding in the predictive factors of Internet addiction among university students in the Malaysian context to develop deeper understanding on the topic which is vital in helping to develop intervention programmes.