perceived social support, self-esteem, and internet addiction among students of al-zahra university, tehran, iran

Background: internet addiction is a global phenomenon that causes serious problems in mental health and social communication. students form a vulnerable group, since they have free, easy, and daily access to the internet. objectives: the current study aimed to investigate perceived social support, self-esteem, and internet addiction among al-zahra university students. materials and methods: in the current descriptive research, the statistical sample consisted of 101 female students residing at al-zahra university dormitory, tehran, iran. participants were randomly selected and their identities were classified. then, they completed the multidimensional scale of perceived social support, rosenberg’s self-esteem scale, and yang internet addiction test. after completion of the questionnaires, the data were analyzed using the correlation test and stepwise regression. results: the pearson correlation coefficient indicated significant relationships between self-esteem and internet addiction (p < 0.05, r = -0.345), perceived social support (r = 0.224, p < 0.05), and the subscale of family (r = 0.311, p < 0.05). the findings also demonstrated a significant relationship between internet addiction and perceived social support (r = -0.332, p < 0.05), the subscale of family (p < 0.05, r = -0.402), and the other subscales (p < 0.05, r = -0.287). results of the stepwise regression showed that the scale of internet addiction and the family subscale were predicative variables for self-esteem (r = 0.137, p < 0.01, f2, 96 = 77.7). conclusions: findings of the current study showed that persons with low self-esteem were more vulnerable to internet addiction.