The Psychology of Online Health Anxiety: Exploring Cyberchondria and Emotion Regulation Difficulties among Pakistani Students

Abstract

The widespread availability of online health information has made it easier for university students to investigate symptoms, but repeated searching may also intensify illness-related worry. The present study examined associations among cyberchondria, health anxiety, and difficulties in emotion regulation in a sample of public and private colleges and university students of district Vehari. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was used. Participants were 217 students recruited through convenience sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and three standardized self-report instruments: the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS-15) Barke et al. (2016), to assess the severity of cyberchondria; Health anxiety was assessed using the 18-item Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI; Salkovskis et al., 2002; Alberts et al., 2013) to measure health anxiety; and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-18) (Victor & Klonsky, 2016), to assess difficulties in emotion regulation. Cyberchondria was positively correlated with health anxiety, r = .379, p < .01, and difficulties in emotion regulation, r = .465, p < .01. Difficulties in emotion regulation were also positively correlated with health anxiety, r = .431, p < .01. In the reported regression model, cyberchondria significantly predicted health anxiety, B = 0.303, SE = 0.050, β = .379, t = 6.006, p < .001; the model explained 14.4% of the variance in health anxiety, R² = .144, F(1, 215) = 36.072, p < .001. These findings indicate that students reporting greater cyberchondria also tend to report greater health anxiety and emotion-regulation difficulties.