Internet Addiction and Emotional Intelligence in university nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

Background: The appearance of the Internet has allowed for improved communications and the technological development of society, but it has also led to problematic use, generating addictive behaviors in some university students. Emotional Intelligence helps to improve emotional skills, increase social skills, and act as a protective factor against technological addictions.

Objectives: to describe and analyze the relationship between Internet Addiction, Emotional Intelligence, and sociodemographic characteristics in Nursing students.

Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants belonged to three different campuses of two Universities. 532 nursing students were included in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used collecting sociodemographic variables and the TMMS-24 and IAT instruments were employed to measure Emotional Intelligence and Internet Addiction, respectively.

Results: 11.1% of the students presented Internet Addiction. Higher Internet Addiction scores were obtained by those who were younger, had a lower academic year, and were more involved in leisure activities. Adequate levels of Emotional Intelligence were found, women showed higher values of Attention and men of Repair. Students aged 24 or over reported higher Clarity and Repair values. There was an inverse relationship between Clarity and Repair with Internet Addiction values.

Conclusions: The ability to understand and regulate emotional states is related to lower Internet Addiction values. The group of Internet addicts revealed greater Attention and less Clarity. Internet Addiction values increased as the number of hours of Internet use increases. The development of programs which improve Emotional Intelligence could be essential to facilitate the emotional management of Internet Addiction.