Internet addiction and cyberchondria - Their relationship with Well-Being
Open accessAbstract
The current paper presents the results from some research on the relationship between In-ternet addiction, cyberchondria, and different aspects of well-being. The information available on the Internet, which is not necessarily truthful and accurate, can unreasonably amplify users health concerns. Problematic Internet use, health anxiety aroused by online searches for health information and escalation of health concerns as an indicator of cyberchondria, are all associated with a decrease in subjective and eudaimonic well-being as well as in self-esteem. The analyses indicate positive relationships between depressive symptoms on the one hand, and Internet ad-diction and health anxiety, on the other. A conclusion regarding the existence of a relationship between Internet addiction, cyberchondria and decreased levels of well-being could be drawn from the research. Furthermore, the results suggest that self-esteem and eudaimonic well-being correlate positively with the number of people with whom users communicate online.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126 · see citing works
The structure of psychological well-being revisited.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.69.4.719 · Cited by 10,285 · see citing works
Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (2009) · Social indicators research series · doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2354-4_5 · Cited by 3,462 · see citing works
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.
Winch, R. F., & Rosenberg, M. (1965) · Social Forces · doi:10.2307/2575639 · Cited by 1,916 · see citing works
The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction
YOUNG, K. S., & ROGERS, R. C. (1998) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.1998.1.25 · Cited by 1,198 · see citing works
The psychometric properties of the Internet addiction test
Widyanto, L., & McMurran, M. (2004) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2004.7.443 · Cited by 1,073 · see citing works
Caplan, S. E. (2003) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650203257842 · Cited by 1,026 · see citing works
The compulsive internet use scale (CIUS): some psychometric properties
Meerkerk, G.-J., Van Den Eijnden, R. J. J. M., Vermulst, A. A., & Garretsen, H. F. L. (2009) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0181 · Cited by 989 · see citing works
Kim, J., LaRose, R., & Peng, W. (2009) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0327 · Cited by 781 · see citing works
Waterman, A. S., Schwartz, S. J., Zamboanga, B. L., Ravert, R., Williams, M. K., Agocha, V. B., Kim, S. Y., & Donnellan, M. (2010) · Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760903435208 · Cited by 730 · see citing works
‘Internet Addiction’: A Critical Review
Widyanto, L., & Griffiths, M. (2006) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-006-9009-9 · Cited by 658 · see citing works
Wood, A. M., & Joseph, S. (2010) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.06.032 · Cited by 624 · see citing works
Overview: hypochondriasis, bodily complaints, and somatic styles
BARSKY, A. J., & Klerman, G. L. (1983) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.140.3.273 · Cited by 605 · see citing works
A social skill account of problematic Internet use
Caplan, S. E. (2005) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2005.tb03019.x · Cited by 592 · see citing works
Using the Internet for Health-Related Activities: Findings From a National Probability Sample
Atkinson, N. L., Saperstein, S. L., & Pleis, J. R. (2009) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.1035 · Cited by 585 · see citing works
Cyberchondria: studies of the escalation of medical concerns in web search
White, R. W., & Horvitz, E. (2009) · ACM Transactions on Information Systems · doi:10.1145/1629096.1629101 · Cited by 546 · see citing works
Internet Addiction : The Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder
Yong, K. (1996) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 524 · see citing works
Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037//1040-3590.5.2.164 · Cited by 366 · see citing works
The Doctor, The Patient and the World-Wide Web: How the Internet is Changing Healthcare
powell, J. A., Darvell, M., & Gray, J. A. M. (2003) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · doi:10.1258/jrsm.96.2.74 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Survey of doctors’ experience of patients using the Internet
Potts, H. W. W., & Wyatt, J. C. (2002) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.4.1.e5 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
To Get What You Need: Healthy and Pathological Internet Use
Suler, J. R. (1999) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.1999.2.385 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Cognitive‐Behavioral Treatment for Severe and Persistent Health Anxiety (Hypochondriasis)
Salkovskis, P. M., Warwick, H. M. C., & Deale, A. C. (2003) · Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention · doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhg026 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
DSM-IV Hypochondriasis in Primary Care
Escobar, J. I. (1998) · General Hospital Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s0163-8343(98)00018-8 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Technology and Psychological Well-being
(2009) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511635373 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Internet healthcare: do self-diagnosis sites do more harm than good?
Ryan, A. V., & Wilson, S. (2008) · Expert Opinion on Drug Safety · doi:10.1517/14740338.7.3.227 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Internet behaviour and addiction
Egger, O., & Rauterberg, M. (1996) · TU/e Research Portal · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Bracke, P., Levecque, K., & de Velde, S. M. V. (2008) · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Jones, R. H. (2000) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7235.596 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Technology and Psychological Well-being
Amichai‐Hamburger, Y. (2011) · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Predicting escalations of medical queries based on web page structure and content
White, R. W., & Horvitz, E. (2010) · International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR) · doi:10.1145/1835449.1835607 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Bracke, P., Levecque, K., & de Velde, S. M. V. (2008) · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 34 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Vismara, M., Caricasole, V., Starcevic, V., Cinosi, E., Dell'Osso, B., Martinotti, G., & Fineberg, N. A. (2020) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2020.152167 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
“CYB appears to be a particularly compulsive form of PUI focused on health concerns [50,51].”
BackgroundBajcar, B., & Babiak, J. (2021) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-019-00216-x · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Cyberchondria scale (CS): development, validity and reliability study
Durak Batigun, A., Gor, N., Komurcu, B., & Senkal Erturk, I. (2018) · Dusunen Adam The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences · doi:10.5350/dajpn2018310203 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
“The gender parameter showed a main effect of only on non-functional Internet use subdomain of CS (F[1-240]=5.”
BackgroundFaruk Caner, Y. A. M., Korkmaz, O., & Griffiths, M. D. (2021) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-02324-z · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Kurçer, M. A., Erdoğan, Z., & KARDEŞ, V. Ç. (2021) · Perspectives In Psychiatric Care · doi:10.1111/ppc.12850 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Cyberchondria: conceptual relation with health anxiety, assessment, management and prevention
Menon, V., Kar, S. K., Tripathi, A., Nebhinani, N., & Varadharajan, N. (2020) · Asian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102225 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Ambrosini, F., Truzoli, R., Vismara, M. E. M., Vitella, D., & Biolcati, R. (2022) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09437 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Tarhan, N., Tutgun-Ünal, A., & Ekinci, Y. (2021) · Opus uluslararası toplum araştırmaları dergisi · doi:10.26466/opus.855959 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder?
Mestre‐Bach, G., & Potenza, M. N. (2023) · Current Addiction Reports · doi:10.1007/s40429-022-00462-3 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
El-Zoghby, S. M., Zaghloul, N., Tawfik, A. M., Elsherbiny, N. M., Shehata, S. A., & Soltan, E. M. (2024) · Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association · doi:10.1186/s42506-024-00154-y · Cited by 27 · see citing works
AVÇİN, E., & Şeyda, C. A. N. (2021) · Library Hi Tech · doi:10.1108/lht-03-2021-0110 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Batıgün, A. D., Ertürk, İ. Ş., Gör, N., & Akik, B. K. (2020) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-020-01038-y · Cited by 24 · see citing works
MRAYYAN, M. T., AL-Atiyyat, N. M., Khait, A. F. A., Al-Rawashdeh, S. Y., Algunmeeyn, A., & Abunab, H. Y. (2022) · Nursing Forum · doi:10.1111/nuf.12682 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
İNTERNET BAĞIMLILIĞI VE SAĞLIK ANKSİYETESİNİN SİBERKONDRİ DAVRANIŞLARI ÜZERİNE ETKİSİ
Doğan, S., Acar, F., & Doğan, T. (2021) · Erciyes Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi · doi:10.48070/erusosbilder.859102 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Jeong, G.-C., Lee, K., & Jin, Y. (2023) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs13080663 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Investigation of the effect of internet addiction on cyberchondria
Yorulmaz, M., GÖDE, A., Aydoğdu, A., & Dilekçi, R. (2025) · Psychology Health & Medicine · doi:10.1080/13548506.2025.2458794 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Islam, M. R., & Samak, A. (2024) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2024.2443828 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Chakrabarty, A., Tagiya, M., Pal, S., & Cuong, N. H. H. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-13-8461-5_64 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Dijital Dünyada Hastalık Korkusu: Siberkondri ve Sosyal Medya Bağımlılığı ile İlişkisi
Akyol, E. Y., YALÇIN, H., & Ünal, İ. N. (2024) · Humanistic Perspective · doi:10.47793/hp.1410389 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Internet Addiction and Psychological Well-being among Youths of Rajkot District
Pandya, M. M., & Korat, N. R. (2015) · International Journal of Indian Psychology · doi:10.25215/0202.023 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Coping and Cyberchondria in a Pandemic: A Study on Young Adults
Sam, K., Jain, P., Arpitha, H., Raghuram, T., Jaikumar, A., Chakraborty, R., & Rajan, S. K. (2023) · Journal of Mental Health and Human Behaviour · doi:10.4103/jmhhb.jmhhb_225_22 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Cyberchondria, Coronavirus, and Cybercrime
Aiken, M. P., Farr, R. R., & Witschi, D. (2021) · Advances in media, entertainment and the arts (AMEA) book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-8630-3.ch002 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Kamburidis, J. (2024) · Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies · doi:10.24193/jebp.2024.1.6 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Health Literacy and Cyberchondria
Ünal, A. T., Ekinci, Y., & Tarhan, N. (2021) · Advances in media, entertainment and the arts (AMEA) book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-8630-3.ch015 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Dores, A. R., Antunes, C., Geraldo, A., Carvalho, I. P., Marques, A. J., Pereira, I., Chamberlain, S. R., Löchner, C., & Ioannidis, K. (2025) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2025.152585
Yeşilyurt, P. Z., & Sohbet, R. (2025) · Gümüşhane Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi · doi:10.37989/gumussagbil.1366459
Sağlık Bölümlerindeki Üniversite Öğrencilerinde Siberkondriyanın Değerlendirmesi
Şahin, P., Uyar, H., Pehlivan, K., Olgun, N., & Tosun, N. (2025) · Sağlık Bilimleri ve Klinik Araştırmaları Dergisi · doi:10.63695/jhscr.1606570
Exploring the biopsychosocial-digital model of cyberchondria in pregnancy
Šoštarić, M., Jokić‐Begić, N., & Mikac, U. (2026) · Clinical Psychologist · doi:10.1080/13284207.2026.2679443
Duradoni, M., Colombini, G., Natali, E., & Guazzini, A. (2026) · Advances in Public Health · doi:10.1155/adph/8700490
- Authors
- Ivanova, E.
- Affiliations
- Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" (BG)
- Corresponding author
- Ivanova, Eliza
- Venue
- Journal of Education Culture and Society
- Publisher
- Foundation Pro Scientia Publica
- Published
- 2020-01-11
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-70
- ISSN
- 2081-1640 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W845443968
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 5.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Education Culture and Society (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Keywords
- internet addiction, cyberchondria, well-being, eudaimonic well-being, subjective well-being, self-esteem, health anxiety, depressive symptoms, online health information seeking, online communication
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
