The Relationship between Problematic Internet Usage in Students of Faculties of Health Sciences and Parameters of Locus of Control and Emotional Intelligence

Background: "Controlling internet usage", which is investigated in scope of problematic internet usage, may also be discussed in terms of locus of control and emotional intelligence. Aim: This study aimed to determine the relationship between problematic internet usage in students of faculties of health sciences and parameters of locus of control and emotional intelligence. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 1004 students of the faculty of health sciences. The data were collected by a "Personal Information Form", the "Online Cognition Scale (OCS)", the "Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (IELCS)" and the "Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ)". Results: It was found that the student's mean time of internet usage was 58.50 ± 113.49 minutes and 82.1% were online mostly in between the hours of 16 and 24 o'clock. The reasons for using the internet were listed in order as: obtaining general information / reading the news (94.5%), research about education / homework (90.8%), listening to mp3 files / watching movies / downloading software (88.8%), social networks / making friends / chatting (84.6%), surf / entertainment (77.9%), e-mail / communication (62.8%), shopping (57.9%), gaming (50.1%), banking operations (37.4%), financial information (26.5%), games of chance / betting (14.3%) and pornography (8.1%). There was a weak and significant relationship in the negative direction between the total and all sub-scale scores of OCS and the total scores of IELCS and EIQ (p0.05). Conclusions: It was determined that as problematic internet usage increased in the students, their total scores of internal-external locus of control and emotional intelligence levels decreased.