Abstract

This study examined the effects and the connection between Internet addiction and developing depression, stress, anxiety, and psychological symptoms among university students. Participants were 4388 university students from JUST University in Jordan. In this study, the English version of Davis's OCS and the DASS; to isolate and identify aspects of emotional disturbance, were used. By measuring correlation analysis, internet addiction was found completely associated with depression, stress, and anxiety. The analysis of the study results suggests that the association of the two conditions is multifaceted, and shows the effect of Internet addiction in developing other psychological symptoms. All the studies agreed that Internet addiction or the depression increases the risk of both complications whether they were mental disorders or addictive disorders. In view of the negative implications of the co-morbidity of depression and Internet addiction, the suggestion that all clinically relevant cases of depression related to addition on websites and other types of social media networks found in the community should be treated seems logical. However, new studies seem mandatory to document the safety of antidepressant use and the efficacy of treatment of depression in cases of co-morbidity.

Keywords: Depression; Internet addiction; Stress; Anxiety