Problematic Internet Use among university students of Bangladesh: The predictive role of age, gender, and loneliness

Internet is the most important evolving technology of modern days and the most frequently used tool, which provides significant facilities and advantages to people's life, such as access to information, communication, academic research, and entertainment. It is highlighted in the literature that excessive use, lack of control over the behavior related to internet use, unhealthy and maladaptive use of the Internet is regarded as Problematic Internet Use (PIU). Therefore, the study examined the role of age, gender, and loneliness as predictors of PIU among the Bangladeshi university students. Data were collected through the structured questionnaire in face-to-face interview from 432 university students, 183 females and 249 males, employing a cross-sectional study design. Pearson correlation analysis, t-test and hierarchical regression analysis were applied to analyze the data. The results indicated that male university students use significantly higher problematic internet than the female students. Hierarchical regression analysis exhibited that age negatively and loneliness positively predict PIU. Among them loneliness was the most significant predictor of PIU. Therefore, the findings exposed that young university students used more problematic internet compared to the senior university students of the study and the higher levels of loneliness was associated with the higher levels of PIU of the university students.