The Impact of Perceived Social Support on Internet Addiction Among Vietnamese Undergraduates: The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

The Internet provides many societal benefits such as diversified sources of information, communication, and entertainment. However, the development of the Internet has negatively impacted users in some ways, with many users displaying symptoms of Internet addiction. Internet addiction is an emerging societal problem, warranting research on its causes. This study examines the impact of perceived social support and the mediating role of emotional intelligence on Internet addiction among Vietnamese undergraduates. The respondents included 787 randomly undergraduate students in Vietnam. The study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0. The results showed that perceived social support negatively affected Internet addiction, and emotional intelligence played a mediating role in the relationship between perceived social support and Internet addiction.