MODERATING ROLES OF SOCIAL SUPPORT ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL REGULATION AND INTERNET ADDICTION AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL

Yusuf Gbenga Rafiu

Abstract


The present study investigated social support as a moderator of the relationship between emotion regulation and internet addiction among military personnel in Nigeria. Three hundred and one (301) (283 males, 94% and = 18 females, 6%) military personnel drawn from Army, Airforce and Navy units in the Headquarters Theatre Command in Maiduguri Borno state, North-East Nigeria took part in the survey (age range = 23-55 years, M = 36.14 years; SD = 7.50). Three instruments were used for data collection: Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Perceived Social Support Scale and Internet Addiction Test were used to measure the factors. Three hypotheses (i. Emotion regulation will be associated with internet addiction among soldiers, ii. Social support will be associated with internet addiction among soldiers, and iii. Social support would moderate the association between emotion regulation and internet addiction of military personnel) were tested in the study. Results from HAYES PROCESS macro regression analysis indicated that emotion regulation partially predicted internet addiction symptoms (B = .19; t = 1.76, p < .05), social support predicted internet addiction symptoms (B = -.30; t = -2.63, p <.01), and significantly moderated the relationship between emotion regulation and internet addiction (B = -.40; t = -2.50, p<.01) such that the relationship was weak for military personnel with high social support scores and strong for military personnel with low social support scores. The implication of the present finding is that emotion regulation should be included in internet addiction therapy among military personnel in counterterrorism operations in Nigeria. The significances of the present finding were highlighted, while the limitations were stated and suggestions were made for further studies.


Keywords


emotion regulations, social support, internet addiction, military personnel, Nigeria

Full Text:

PDF

References


Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2008). Internet Addiction. CNS Drugs, 22(5), 353–365. doi:10.2165/00023210-200822050-00001

Aboujaoude, E., Koran, L. M., & Gamel, N. (2006). Potential markers for issue of gender differences is not yet settled, al- problematic internet use: a telephone survey of 2,513 adults. CNS Spectrums, 11 (10), 750-755

Griffiths, M. D. (1999). Internet addiction: fact or fiction? Psychologist persistent, waxes and wanes in severity or remits. Military Reports, 12, 246-251

Sussman, N., & Hollander, M. D. (2005). New York City [online]. http://www.primarypsychiatry.com/aspx/article_pf.aspx. Accessed 2021, 24th August.

Shapira, N., Goldsmith, T., & Keck, J. P. (2000). Psychiatric features of individuals with problematic internet use. Journal of Affective Disorders, 57, 267-272.

Black, D. W., Belsare, G., & Schlosser, S. (1999). Clinical features, psychiatric comorbidity, and health-related quality of life in persons reporting compulsive computer use behavior. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60, 839-843

Davis, R. A (2001). Cognitive-behavioral model of pathological internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 17, 187-195.

Caplan, S. E. (2003). Preference for online social interaction: a theory of problematic internet use and psychosocial well-being. Community Research, 30, 625-48

Zhang, S., Tian, Y., Sui, Y., Zhang, D., Shi, J., Wang, P., Meng, W., & Si, Y. (2018). Relationships between social support, loneliness, and internet addiction in Chinese postsecondary students: a longitudinal cross-lagged analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1707. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01707

Chen, X., Li, F. H., & Long, L. L. (2007). Prospective study on the relationship between social support and internet addiction. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 21, 240–243. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2014.12.025

Ditommaso, E., Brannen-Mcnulty, C., Ross, L., & Burgess, M. (2003). Attachment styles, social skills and loneliness in young adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 303–312. doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00190-3

Fusco, S. J., Michael, K., Aloudat, A., & Abbas, R. (2015). Monitoring people using location-based social networking and its negative impact on trust. IEEE International Symptoms of Technological Society, 26, 1–11.

Hamm, J. V., & Faircloth, B. S. (2005). The role of friendship in adolescents’ sense of school belonging. New Directions of Child and Adolescence Development, 5, 61–78. 10.1002/cd.121

Kang, S. J., Kim, Y. B., Park, T., & Kim, C. H. (2013). Automatic player behavior analysis system using trajectory data in a massive multiplayer online game. Multimedia Tools and Application, 66, 383–404. doi: 10.1007/s11042-012-1052-x

Kessler, R. C., Price, R. H., & Wortman, C. B. (1985). Social factors in psychopathology: stress, social support, and coping processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 531–572. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ps.36.020185.002531

Levitt, M. J., Levitt, J., Bustos, G. L., Crooks, N. A., & Santos, J. D. (2005). Patterns of social support in the middle childhood to early adolescent transition: implications for adjustment. Social Development, 14, 398–420. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00308.x

O’Connor, E. L., Longman, H., White, K. M., & Obst, P. L. (2015). Sense of community, social identity and social support among players of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs): a qualitative analysis. Journal of Community Social Psychology, 25, 459–473. doi: 10.1002/casp.2224

Sherbourne, C. D., & Stewart, A. L. (1991). The MOS social support survey. Social Science Medicine, 32, 705–714. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90150-B

Thoits, P. A. (1983). Dimensions of life events that influence psychological distress: an evaluation and synthesis of the literature” in Psychological Stress, 1st Edn, ed. H. Kaplan (New York, NY: Acdemic Press) 33–103.

Wei, C. (2010). An analysis of the negative functions of network social media communication. Science and Technology Community, 4, 77–78.

Wu, C. H. (2004). The role of social support on internet addiction. Journal of Cybercrime, 7, 173–189.

Wu, X. S., Zhang, Z. H., Feng, Z., Wang, W. J., & Li, Y. F. (2016). Prevalence of internet addiction and its association with social support and other related factors among adolescents in China. Journal of Adolescence, 52, 103–111. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.07.012

Xiao, S. Y. (1994). The theoretical basis and research application of social support rating scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology and Medicine, 4, 98–100.

Young, K. S. (1997). What makes the internet addictive: potential explanations for pathological internet use, in Paper Presented at the 105th Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Yao, M. Z., & Zhong, Z. J. (2014). Loneliness, social contacts and internet addiction: a cross-lagged panel study. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 164–170. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.08.007.

Terziev, V. (2018). Possible aspects of occupational and psychological adaptation of the military, dis-charged from military service and their families to a new activity life cycle. IJASOS – International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 4, 786–794.

Van Voorhees, E. E., Wagner, H. R., Beckham, J. C.,Bradford, D. W., Neal, L. C., Penk, W. E., & Elbo-gen, E. B. (2018). Effects of social support and resilient coping on violent behavior in military veterans. Psychological Services, 15, 181–190.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2022 Yusuf Gbenga Rafiu

 

 

ISSN: 3027-0510 (Online)

 

   

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.