Determination of Problematic Internet Use: Identity Styles and Social Skills

Abstract

The use of social network sites (SNSs) has been booming in the world and it represents the new way of social interactions. The reports of problematic forms of Internet usage brought attention to this issue. Current study examines the correlation between subscales of identity styles and social skills with problematic internet use among Facebook users. Furthermore, this study aimed to find the predictors of PIU. Data were collected from 132 students of Islamic Azad University, UAE branch, aged 18-40 years old (M= 24.64, SD = 4.909) who were active in Facebook. The result has indicated that there was a significant negative correlation between the total score of problematic internet use with emotional sensitivity, social sensitivity, informational identity, normative identity and commitment. On the other hand, it had a significant positive correlation with social expressivity and diffusion/avoidant identity. Furthermore, Commitment, social expressivity (SE), emotion sensitivity (ES), social sensitivity (SS) as predictor variables accounted for 28% of variance of problematic internet use. These findings show the impact of different dimensions of identity and social skills in problematic internet use.