Academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination as predictors of problematic internet use in university students q Hatice Odaci * Karadeniz Technical University, Fatih Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, 61335 Sö gütlü, Trabzon, Turkey article info Article history: Received 14 November 2010 Received in revised form 26 December 2010 Accepted 6 January 2011 Keywords: Adult learning Computer-mediated communication Media in education abstract Although computers and the internet, indispensable tools in people’s lives today, facilitate life on the one hand, they have brought new risks with them on the other. Internet dependency, or problematic internet use, has emerged as a new concept of addiction. Parallel to this increasing in society in general, it is also on the rise among university students and is widely believed to have a negative impact on their lives. The aim of this study was to investigate whether academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination can act as predictors of problematic internet use among university students. The study group consisted of 398 students attending education, medicine, architecture and economics programs at the Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. The Problematic Internet Use Scale, Academic Self-efficacy Scale, Academic Procrastination Scale and a Personal Data Form were used as scaling instruments. Pearson’s correlation coefficient, multiple regression analysis, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data collected. The results show a significant negative correlation between academic self-efficacy and prob- lematic internet use, while the relation between problematic internet use and academic procrastination was not statistically significant. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy was determined to be a significant predictor of problematic internet use. The results also show a significant difference in problematic internet use in terms of students’ programs, though levels of problematic internet use did not differ in terms of sex or ownership of a computer. These findings are discussed in the light of the relevant literature and some new directions for further studies are suggested. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The internet, widely used in educational environments, is an important teaching and learning resource when used in a manner appro- priate to its aims. Thanks to the internet, students can easily access the materials they need for their work and obtain information by different routes (Chou & Tsai, 2002; Chuang & Tsai, 2005; Houle, 1996). However, as with all technologies, in addition to facilitating individuals’ lives to a considerable extent the internet also brings problems with it; in particular, unhealthy or improper use of the internet may be described as a negativity that has begun affecting social life. “Healthy internet use” has been described as internet use in order to achieve a specific purpose, within an appropriate time frame, involving no emotional or behavioral disorder (Davis, 2001; Odacı & Kalkan, 2010). However, the number of “problematic internet users” to whom the concept of health provided in this definition does not apply is also too great to ignore. Researchers have at various time referred to this in the literature as “internet dependence” (Lin & Tsai, 2002), “internet addiction” (Douglas, Mills, Niang, Stepchenkova, Byun, Ruffini et al., 2008; Scherer, 1997), “pathological internet use” (Davis, 2001) and “problematic internet use” (Davis, Flett, & Besser, 2002; Odacı & Kalkan, 2010). The common point in these descriptions involves such indicators as spending excessive time on the internet, a state of distress and irritability in situations when internet use is not available and feeling the need to spend even more time on line (Young & Rodgers, 1998). Internet use is highest in the 16–24 age groups (Kandell, 1998; Öztürk, Odabasıoglu, Eraslan, Genç, & Kalyoncu, 2007), and this suggests that university students, at a critical time in terms of their social and emotional development, are a potential risk group for q This study was presented as oral presentation at the World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Administration, Egypt, Cairo, October 29–31, 2010. * Tel.: þ90 462 377 70 77; fax: þ90 462 248 73 44. E-mail addresses: hatodaci@hotmail.com, eodaci@hotmail.com. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.01.005 Computers & Education 57 (2011) 1109–1113