Studying Internet Addiction in Higher Education Students: Correlations with Anxiety, Depression, and Burnout

Abstract

Internet Addiction (IA) is now considered a major mental health issue, often associated with anxiety, depression, and academic burnout. The present study investigated these relationships in 3,090 students of the University of Patras, using stratified sampling during November–December 2023. The sample was highly representative, as 75% of the participants came from areas outside the immediate geographic region of the university. For the evaluation of variables, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-12) were used. SEM analysis showed that internet addiction is directly linked to academic burnout, which in turn mainly affects the appearance of depressive symptoms. At the same time, strong positive associations were identified between IA, psychological distress and burnout. Through cluster analysis, four different student profiles emerged: low addiction, moderate addiction with self-regulation difficulties, severe addiction and social withdrawal. Of particular interest were two groups with similar total IA scores but different psychological mechanisms of internet use. The findings show that the individual dimensions of IA function as different risk factors for mental health, highlighting the need for targeted university interventions to support students.