Sağlık Krizinin Yarattığı Korkunun Yaşam Doyumu Üzerine Etkisi: Tüketicilerin İnternet Kullanım Çeşitliliği Ve Yalnızlık Duygusunun Aracılık Etkisi

Abstract

This thesis examines the effects of the fear of COVID – 19, along with feelings of loneliness and the diversity of internet usage, on life satisfaction during the COVID – 19 health crisis. To test the hypotheses generated from the literature review on the subject, an online survey method was employed, including 338 participants in the study. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS Process Hayes Model 6 program for serial mediation effects. The results show that the fear experienced during the COVID – 19health crisis is divided into different dimensions, both physical and mental. It was found that the effects of physical and mental COVID – 19 fear on life satisfaction yielded different outcomes. While physical COVID – 19fear positively affected feelings of loneliness, no effect of mental COVID – 19 fear was observed. On the other hand, fear, regardless of its type, was found to have a negative effect on life satisfaction. Furthermore, physical and mental COVID – 19 fear had a positive effect on the use of the internet for communication purposes, but no effect was observed on other dimensions. Additionally, the study examined simple mediation effects, revealing that loneliness and the use of the internet for shopping mediated the relationship between physical fear and life satisfaction, while no mediation effect was found between mental fear and life satisfaction. Finally, the serial mediation analysis results indicated that only the relationship between physical COVID – 19 fear and life satisfaction was mediated by feelings of loneliness and the use of the internet for information gathering. This thesis contributes to the literature by addressing the differentiation of life satisfaction experienced by consumers during the COVID – 19 health crisis according to the type of fear, and by examining the use of the internet for different activities, unlike previous studies.