Would you feel happier if you have more protection behaviour? A panel survey of university students in Japan

摘要

It is suggested that the young generations' low levels of privacy concerns might lead to undesirable behaviours that have negative effects on their subjective well-being. This study aims to investigate what kind of causal relationship would exist among the young generations' privacy concerns, protection behaviours and subjective well-being in Japan, considering the effects of demographic factors (age, gender) and Internet access time via computers and smartphones. A two-wave panel survey targeting university students was conducted and 163 responses became the analysed data. The following results were observed: (a) Students' privacy concerns had positive direct effects on their protection behaviours, along with their time spent accessing the Internet through computers; and (b) Their protection behaviours, as well as their time spent accessing the Internet through computers, had negative direct effects on their subjective well-being.