Internet Addiction, Self-Efficacy, and Communication Apprehension among Higher Education Students in Indonesia.

Abstract

The phenomenon of growing internet usage among higher education students has introduced a new pattern of interaction, where online communication is often preferred over face-to-face interaction. This shift has led to an increase in communication apprehension, particularly among students who excessively use the internet without strong self-efficacy in situations that require direct communication. This study aims to examine the influence of internet addiction and self-efficacy on communication apprehension among higher education students. This research follows a quantitative approach with a regression design, involving 149 higher education students as the sample. To analyze the data, multiple linear regression analysis was used. The results show that both self-efficacy and internet addiction significantly impact communication apprehension, with a p-value of 0.000 (p < 0.05). The two predictor variables (self-efficacy and internet addiction) account for 30.9% (R² = 0.309) of the variance in communication apprehension. Among the two predictors, self-efficacy shows a stronger negative correlation with communication apprehension (β = -0.443) compared to internet addiction (β = 0.271).
Keywords : Internet Addiction, Self-Efficacy, and Communication Apprehension