Excessive Internet use and self-esteem among Internet users in Egypt

Abstract

Several psychological comorbidities are thought to be associated with excessive Internet use. This study aimed to assess the relation between excessive Internet use and self-esteem among Internet users in Egypt. In this cross-sectional study, a Google form questionnaire, composed of three sections, was used to assess participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and daily Internet use. Self-esteem was evaluated using the Arabic version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Only people ≥18 years who reported having a stable Internet access and were residing in Egypt were included. Our results indicated that 25.3% of the 407 participants reported excessive Internet use (>4 h/day) and 29.5% had low self-esteem. Logistic regression showed that age ≤ 25 years and being unmarried were risk factors of excessive Internet use; (OR 2.85, 95% CI: 1.44–5.66; p value = 0.003) and (OR 2.64, 95% CI: 1.20–5.80; p value = 0.015), respectively. Low self-esteem associated with excessive Internet use by the univariate analysis (OR 1.68, 95% CI: 1.05–2.69; p value = 0.022), yet after adjustment for other covariates, the association attenuated (OR 1.44, 95% CI: 0.86–2.41; p value = 0.162). In participants ≤ 25 years, the association between self-esteem and excessive Internet use remained significant after adjustment for the covariates (Before: OR 2.04, 95% CI: 1.08–3.85; p value = 0.020 vs. After: OR 2.12, 95% CI: 1.11–4.08; p value = 0.015). In conclusion, excessive Internet use is a common finding among Internet users in Egypt. Young and unmarried people are more susceptible to use the Internet excessively. Low self-esteem in young people is associated with excessive Internet use.

Keywords:

• Excessive Internet use
• risk factors
• self-esteem

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in full accordance with the guidelines for Good Clinical Practice and the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Beni-Suef University.

Consent for publication: Section I included a detailed explanation of the steps, aims, and eligibility criteria of the study. Only Internet users who were residing in Egypt by the time of the study and had stable Internet access could participate. The minimum allowed age for participation was 18 years with no maximum limit. Precautions used to guarantee data security were mentioned in this section. To proceed to section II, respondents had to read the description of the study in section I and click “I agree to participate.”

Availability of data and material: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Authors' contributions

All authors contributed to data collection, scientific writing, and data management.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Internet users who agreed to participate in the study.