Examining the Relationship between Addiction to Social Networks and Social Maturity of University Students

Introduction: Social networks influence the personal and social life of individuals by preparing the ground in order to exchange a large amount of information. Social maturity would lead to the development of age-appropriate behaviors in line with society's standards and expectations. The purpose of this study is to determining the relationship between the addiction to social networks and social maturity of students. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive, analytical study using random sampling on 181 students of Shoushtar Faculty of Medical Sciences in 2016. A researcher-designed questionnaire of addiction to social networks and Rao's Social Maturity Scale (RSMS) were employed to collect the data. The data was analysed by SPSS-16. Results: According to the findings, highly addicted students to social networks had lower overall social maturity (p=0.028) and interpersonal adequacy (p=0.023), however no significant relationship was found between the personal adequacy and social adequacy (p>0.05). Males had higher overall social maturity, personal adequacy, interpersonal adequacy, and social adequacy (p=0.000) than females. No significant difference was found between males and females in terms of the social network addiction scores (p=0.707). Conclusion: High addiction to social networks is related to individual's social maturity. This relationship can be used in preventing and treating the addiction to social networks.