The role of loneliness in university students’ pathological Internet use – a web survey study on the moderating effect of social web application use

The present study investigated the role of social web application use in the association between loneliness and pathological Internet use. A sample of university students (n = 445) completed an online survey of their loneliness and Internet use, including an assessment of pathological Internet use level. Based on existing theory and empirical findings, loneliness was expected to be indirectly associated with pathological Internet use through social-compensatory Internet use motives. The strength of this indirect effect was hypothesized to be moderated by levels of social web application use. Results pointed to the specificity of social-compensatory use motives in mediating loneliness effects on pathological Internet use, while the size of these effects was moderated by quantity of social web application use. Findings suggest that lonely people with higher levels of social web activity show a stronger social-compensatory use orientation, which translates to higher levels of pathological Internet use. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed and several suggestions for future studies are made.