DIGITAL DEPENDENCY AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION: EXPLORING THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON INTERNET ADDICTION

Abstract

Present research conducted to examine the existence of relationship between emotional intelligence and internet addiction. Precise objective of the study was to explore if emotional intelligence explains internet addiction significantly, and to compare gender differences for internet addiction.  Proposed sample size for the study was 300 adolescents and young adults, equally divided into male and female groups, belonging to different schools, colleges and universities of Karachi, who were approached through convenient sampling procedure. Research questionnaires were comprised of; Schutte Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test –SSEIT (1998) and Internet Addiction Test –IAT (1998). Formulated hypotheses were statistically analysed through applying T-test, linear Regression, Bivariate Correlation by using SPSS-V22. Obtained results confirmed the presence of significant relationship between Emotional Intelligence and internet addiction. Regression analysis revealed significant predictive role of emotional intelligence to internet addiction. Moreover, no significant gender differences found for internet addiction.