The Relationship between Problematic Technology Use and Mental Health Problems in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analysis

Year 2023, , 374 - 385, 30.06.2023

Erdal Hamarta , Önder Baltacı , Ömer Faruk Akbulut , Muhammed Akat

https://doi.org/10.51535/tell.1283101

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on individuals both psychologically and socially. The current research shows that problematic technology use and mental health problems increased during the pandemic period.
Method: In this study, studies examining the relationship between problematic technology use and mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic were examined and a meta-analysis was conducted. The present meta-analysis focused on the problematic technology use (i.e., internet addiction, smartphone addiction, social media addiction, and game addiction) and mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic. Searches were conducted for relevant studies using the ProQuest, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and TR Dizin databases. A total of 56 studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 53,047 participants were reached in these studies.
Results: Rosenthal’s classic fail-safe N analysis reveals that the meta-analysis result is statistically significant (p=.000). Moreover, the fact that the Begg and Mazumdar rank correlation is not significant indicates the absence of publication bias (p=0.28). In addition, no missing studies were found in Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill analysis. The results demonstrated that problematic technology use was moderately positively correlated with mental health problems (r=0.33, n=53.047). In addition, the Q statistic (1833.059) examined to control heterogeneity shows that all variables are heterogeneous. The results of the I2 statistic (93.4%) show that a high level of heterogeneity has been achieved.
Discussion: This finding shows that problematic technology use was associated with various mental health problems during the pandemic period.

Keywords

Problematic technology use, Mental health, COVID-19, Pandemic, Meta-analysis

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