The Effect of Problematic Internet Use, Social Appearance Anxiety, and Social Media Use on Nursing Students' Nomophobia Levels

This study examined the effect of problematic Internet use, social appearance anxiety, and social media use on nursing students' nomophobia levels. This study was conducted with 755 undergraduate nursing students. Sociodemographic data were evaluated using percentages and means. The effect of problematic Internet use, social appearance anxiety, and social media use on nomophobia levels was assessed by simple linear regression analysis. The mean age of participants was 21.4 +/- 1.3; 82.5% were female, and 59.7% (n = 450) had adequate incomes. According to the regression analysis, nomophobia levels have a strong, positive, and significant relationship with the variables of problematic Internet use (beta = .39, P < .000), social appearance anxiety (beta = .27, P < .001), and social media dependency (beta = .28, P < .001). Examining the correlation between nursing students' problematic Internet use, social appearance anxiety, and social media use levels, nomophobia levels had a positively moderate relationship with problematic Internet use (r = 0.259, P < .001), social appearance anxiety (r = 0.320, P < .001), and social media use levels (r = 0.433, P < .001). There is a direct correlation between nomophobia levels and the variables of problematic Internet use, social appearance anxiety, and social media use.