The present study investigated the role of social web application use in the association between loneliness and pathological Internet use. A sample of university students (n = 445) completed an online survey of their loneliness and Internet use, including an assessment of pathological Internet use level. Based on existing theory and empirical findings, loneliness was expected to be indirectly associated with pathological Internet use through social-compensatory Internet use motives. The strength of this indirect effect was hypothesized to be moderated by levels of social web application use. Results pointed to the specificity of social-compensatory use motives in mediating loneliness effects on pathological Internet use, while the size of these effects was moderated by quantity of social web application use. Findings suggest that lonely people with higher levels of social web activity show a stronger social-compensatory use orientation, which translates to higher levels of pathological Internet use. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed and several suggestions for future studies are made.

本研究调查了社交网络应用程序使用在孤独感与病态互联网使用之间的关联中的作用。一个大学生样本 (n = 445) 完成了一项关于他们的孤独感和互联网使用情况的在线调查，包括对病理性互联网使用水平的评估。根据现有理论和实证研究结果，预计孤独感会通过社会补偿性互联网使用动机与病态的互联网使用间接相关。假设这种间接影响的强度受社交网络应用程序使用水平的影响。结果表明，社会补偿使用动机在调节孤独感对病理性互联网使用的影响方面具有特异性，而这些影响的大小受社交网络应用程序使用量的调节。研究结果表明，社交网络活动水平较高的孤独者表现出更强的社会补偿使用倾向，这转化为更高水平的病态互联网使用。讨论了这些发现的影响和局限性，并对未来的研究提出了一些建议。