Internet gratifications, depression, self-efficacy, and Internet addiction

The present study applied the uses and gratifications approach and social cognitive theory to develop an understanding of the relationship of Internet users' gratification, depression, and Internet self-efficacy to Internet addiction tendencies in a typical college student population. There were 7 key underlying factors of Internet gratifications drawn from gratification items used in previous Internet research: Virtual Community, Information Seeking, Aesthetic Experience, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, Personal Status, and Maintenance of Relationship. Of these, Virtual Community was interpreted as a new gratification factor that has not been in any of the previous studies. This study also verified that Internet gratification factors could be dichotomized into content (instrumental) gratifications or process (ritualistic) gratifications; then it was hypothesized that only process gratifications would be positively related to Internet addiction tendency along with depression and Internet self-efficacy. Virtual Community, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, Personal Status, Maintenance of Relationship gratifications, depression, and Internet self-efficacy were found to be positively related to Internet addiction. The relationship between Internet addiction and uses and gratifications was discussed in terms of the formation of media habits among normal (non-addicted) populations.