This study examined the effect of digital addiction on life satisfaction among undergraduate and graduate students and investigated the sequential mediating effects of learned helplessness and procrastination in this relationship. To this end, a self-...
This study examined the effect of digital addiction on life satisfaction among undergraduate and graduate students and investigated the sequential mediating effects of learned helplessness and procrastination in this relationship. To this end, a self-report survey was conducted with 400 undergraduate and graduate students aged 19 to 29 years, measuring digital addiction, learned helplessness, procrastination, and life satisfaction. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the relationships among the variables, the fit of the research model, and the effects of the paths. In addition, the mediating effects were tested through bootstrapping using phantom variables.
The results were as follows. First, digital addiction was positively correlated with learned helplessness and procrastination, and negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Second, the research model showed an acceptable level of fit. Learned helplessness had a significant mediating effect in the relationship between digital addiction and life satisfaction, whereas procrastination did not show a significant mediating effect. Furthermore, learned helplessness and procrastination showed a significant sequential mediating effect in the relationship between digital addiction and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that digital addiction influences life satisfaction through psychological mechanisms involving learned helplessness and procrastination. This study is meaningful in that it identified psychological mechanisms explaining the relationship between digital addiction and life satisfaction. Based on these findings, the implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.
Keywords: digital addiction, learned helplessness, procrastination, life satisfaction