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Internet Use in Young Adult Males: from the Perspective of Pursuing Well-Being

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Abstract

This study explored notable and measurable differences between intense users and less intense internet users in college students as they pursue well-being in the context of positive psychology. A total of 1024 male students from four general universities in China, served as study participants; data were collected via Internet Addiction Test, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Online Social Support Scale, and Subjective Well-Being Scale. Results showed that compared to less intense internet users, intense users perceive limited real-life social support but considerable online social support. For intense users, online social support influences their subjective well-being partially through the intervening variable of self-esteem; for the less intense internet users, online social support has an insignificant predictive effect on self-esteem or well-being.

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Acknowledgments

The study was funded by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Youth Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 14YJC630178); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014 M552087); the First Key disciplines of Education and Humanities and Social Science Research base of Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University (No. JX2011JYXZD03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangxi Science & Technology and Normal University, Nanchang, China

    Zhongming Ouyang & Yanzi Wang

  2. Institute of Quality Development Strategy, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430072, China

    Hongwei Yu

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  1. Zhongming Ouyang
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  2. Yanzi Wang
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  3. Hongwei Yu
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Correspondence to Hongwei Yu.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

Zhongming Ouyang declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Yanzi Wang declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Hongwei Yu declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Ouyang, Z., Wang, Y. & Yu, H. Internet Use in Young Adult Males: from the Perspective of Pursuing Well-Being. Curr Psychol 36, 840–848 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9473-8

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