Internet Addiction and Its Relationship to Suicidal Ideation among University Students

Abstract

Internet addiction is a growing phenomenon among university students. Excessive internet use has led to the emergence of numerous behavioral and psychological disorders, including poor concentration, distraction, social isolation, and a sense of constant psychological stress. This can sometimes lead to suicidal ideation as a result of a combination of psychological, academic, and social pressures. Therefore, this study targeted... The current research aims to identify Internet addiction among university students and to identify the significance of the statistical difference in Internet addiction and suicidal thinking according to the gender variable (males-females) in suicidal thinking among university students, and to identify the nature of the correlation between Internet addiction and suicidal thinking among university students.

The researcher adopted the cognitive-behavioral theory (CBT), which explains the impact of thoughts and beliefs on addictive and suicidal behaviors, and indicates the importance of modifying these thoughts through cognitive-behavioral therapeutic interventions. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher constructed two scales for Internet addiction consisting of (30) items, and a scale for suicidal ideation. It consists of (28) paragraphs. After extracting the psychometric properties of the two scales, the researcher applied the scale to a sample of (150) university students. The data was processed using appropriate statistical methods. The results showed that the students suffer from Internet addiction, and it was also found that they have Suicidal ideation, and the absence of differences between males and females in Internet addiction and suicidal ideation, in addition to the presence of a statistically significant positive correlation between Internet addiction and suicidal ideation. The researcher also reached a number of conclusions and recommendations to complete the research scope.