Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan 6;11(1):5.
doi: 10.3390/bs11010005.

Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down

Hasah Alheneidi  1 , Loulwah AlSumait  2 , Dalal AlSumait  3 , Andrew P Smith  4
Affiliations

Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use during COVID-19 Lock-Down

Hasah Alheneidi et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

(1) Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, strict lock-down and quarantine were widely imposed by most governments to minimize the spread of the virus. Previous studies have investigated the consequences of the quarantine and social isolation on mental health and the present study examines loneliness and problematic internet use. (2) Methods: The current research used a cross-sectional survey during a lock-down phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 593 participants from the Middle East region (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) were tested using the short form of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Internet Addiction Test. (3) Results: Results from regression analyses showed an association between loneliness and Problematic Internet Use (PIU), and an association between loneliness and the number of hours spent online. Younger participants reported greater loneliness. The quality of the relationship with the person(s) with whom they were spending their lock-down was also correlated with loneliness. Those who reported greater loneliness also obtained frequent news about the pandemic from social media. Problematic internet use was associated with loneliness and the predictors of loneliness. ANOVA analyses showed a dose-response between the predictors and PIU. (4) Conclusions: This study highlights the influence of the social characteristics of the local culture during the COVID-19 lock-down on feelings of loneliness and on PIU.

Keywords: COVID-19; Middle East; internet addiction; lock-down; loneliness; problematic internet use; quarantine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dose-response relationship between loneliness and PIU.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Brooks S.K., Webster R.K., Smith L.E., Woodland L., Wessely S., Greenberg N., Rubin G.J. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. Lancet. 2020;995:912–920. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lai J., Ma S., Wang Y., Cai Z., Hu J., Wei N., Wu J., Du H., Chen T., Li R., et al. Factors associated with mental health outcomes among healthcare workers exposed to Coronavirus Disease. JAMA Netw. Open. 2020;3:e203976. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3976. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jefsen O., Rohde C., Norremark B., Ostergaard S. Covid-19 pandemic-related psychopathology in children and adolescents. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry. 2020 doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13292. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lyne J., Roche E., Kamali M., Feeney L. Covid-19 from the perspective of urban and rural general adult mental health services. Ir. J. Psychol. Med. 2020;37:181–186. doi: 10.1017/ipm.2020.62. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shanahan L., Steinhoff A., Bechtiger L., Murray A., Nivette A., Hep U., Ribeaud D., Manuel E. Emotional distress in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence of risk and resilience from a longitudinal study. Psychol. Med. 2020 doi: 10.1017/S003329172000241X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources