Abstract:

This study aimed to examine the constraints to participation in leisure activities and social media addiction levels of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic process according to some variables and it aims to determine the relationship between the constraints to participation in leisure activities and the social media addiction levels. The study group of the research consisted of 521 students, 297 females and 224 males, who are studying at Kastamonu University. In the study, the "Leisure Time Constraints Scale Short Form (LTCS-SF)” developed by Alexandris and Carroll (1997), adapted into Turkish by Gürbüz and Karakuş (2007), and later tested for construct validity by Gürbüz, Öncü, and Emir (2020), and the “Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale” developed by Billieux, Griffiths Kuss, Demetrovics, Mazzoni, and Pallesen (2016) and adapted into Turkish by Demirci (2019) were used. In the study, descriptive statistical methods (percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation), T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data. According to the results of the study, while there was a significant difference in the variable of daily internet usage time in the Individual Psychology, Lack of Knowledge, and Facility sub-dimensions of LTCS, there was no significant difference in the variables of gender and income level in all sub-dimensions of LTCS. In the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale was a significant difference in the variables of gender and daily internet usage time, but no significant difference was found in the income variable. It was seen that the participants have the most constraints to participation in the facility, and their social media addiction level was at a medium level. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was determined that all sub-dimensions of LTCS were in a significant and positive relationship with social media addiction. It can be said that the differences in the leisure time constraints of the participants and their social media addictions were related to the restrictions in the pandemic process.

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