Internet Use and Psychological Well-being: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examines the relationship between various Internet uses and measures of psychological wellbeing, including depression, loneliness, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Forty studies represent a total sample of 21,258 participants and yield a data of 43 independent correlations. The mean correlation was -0.0504 for the fixed-effects model and r=-0.0385 for the random-effects model, indicating a small detrimental effect of Internet use on psychological well-being. According to the random-effects model, the effect of all moderators, including type of Internet use, indicator of well-being, quality of Internet use measure, and participant age and gender were insignificant. Since these moderators failed to explain the variation in the relationship between Internet use and psychological well-being, future investigations should consider the possible sources of these differences.