INFLUENCE OF INTERNET ADDICTION AND LONELINESS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG NIGERIA POLICE ACADEMY CADETS

Abstract

Being addicted to internet and feelings of loneliness are rapidly becoming prevalent globally mental health concern. This study investigates the effect of internet addiction (IA) and loneliness on psychological wellbeing (PWB) among cadets of Nigeria Police Academy, through an ex post facto survey. A total of 161 cadets (108 males and 53 females) with mean age of 21 years completed the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale, and Ryff Psychological Wellbeing Scale. Three hypotheses were tested using a two way ANOVA (IBM SPSS 26) analysis. Results show there was no statistically significant interaction effect between IA and loneliness, F (2, 161) = 0.80, p = .45. There was statistically significant main effects for both IA, F (2,161) = 6.45, p = .002, with a medium effect size (partial eta squared = 0.08); and loneliness F (2,161) = 24.05, p = .001, with a large effect size (partial eta squared = 0.13. Post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean scores for the low, moderate and high internet addiction groups (M = 96.26, SD = 17.28); (M = 81.46, SD = 13.01); and (M = 89.23, SD = 15.68) were respectively statistically different. The implication of this result is that psychological wellbeing of cadets is affected by both internet addiction and loneliness independently. Recommendations are established on the findings. Keywords: Internet addiction, loneliness, psychological wellbeing, cadets, Nigeria