The Relationship Between Social Support and Internet Addiction in Nursing Students: The Role of Mediating Alexithymia

Abstract

Background: The extent of using the Internet has a huge impact on different aspects of life, and cognitive, emotional and environmental factors have an effect on Internet dependency, and in the case of extreme dependency, it can create a disorder, therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social support and Internet addiction in nursing students: The role of mediating alexithymia. Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive-correlational study research based on structural equation modeling specific regression equation; in this study 361 nursing students in Gorgan in year 2018 from October to November month (178 girls and 183 boys) are chosen in random sampling method. All of them filled Zimet et al. social support scale (1988), Torento alexithymia scale (1994) and Young Internet addiction scale (1996). In this research, regression structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the collected data; SPSS 18 and Amos 23 software were used for the analysis of the data. Results: The findings from regression equations were shown that there was a direct effect between social support with Internet addiction and was an indirect effect between social support with Internet addiction with mediating alexithymia (P˂0.01). There was positive and significant effect between alexithymia with Internet addiction (P˂0.01). There was a negative and significant effect between social support with alexithymia (P˂0.01). Conclusion: Finally, model forecasting variables predict 0.42 variance in Internet addiction. The results of this research emphasized the necessity of the role of social support and also, the role of moderator of the alexithymia on the extreme tendencies of the Internet by students which can provide applied methodical to advisers and trainers in order to improve the psychological state.