Özet:

This study investigated the effect of Facebook addiction level behavior and nomophobia on the students’ happiness level. It is assumed that Facebook addiction employs a direct and indirect effect on happiness through the mediating effect of nomophobia. Therefore, the direct effect of Facebook addiction level on nomophobia and indirect effect of Facebook addiction through nomophobia on happiness were examined. Additionally, effects of various covariates, such as gender and class, on proposed model were examined and compared for both Turkey vs. Pakistan by means of testing the proposed model with multi-group MIMIC method. The results indicate that Facebook addiction had positive and significant direct effect on nomophobia for both Pakistani and Turkish students and positive effect implies that students having higher level of Facebook addiction tend to exertincreased level of nomophobic behaviors. On the other hand, direct effects of Nomophobia and Facebook addiction levels on happiness were significant for Pakistan, while these effects were not significant Turkey. These results indicate that the relationship among these factors differs across the countries. One reason behind this finding could be the differing availability and accessibility of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) and popularity level of the social media for each country. The positive significant effect of nomophobia on happiness for Pakistan implies that students with higher nomophobia level consider themselves happier. Considering covariates factors on nomophobia, Facebook and happiness, the gender effect on Facebook addiction was positive and significant for both countries indicating that male students show higher level of Facebook addiction than females. Unlike the other factors, the non-significant effects of class and gender factors on nomophobia for both countries imply that the level of the nomophobic behaviors do not differ significantly across gender categories and is independent of the years spent at campus. The study indicates that the excessive smartphone use has significant and undeniable negative effect on individual’s psychological well-being and the relationship between these factors might differ across the countries and regions.

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