Problematic internet use and safety behavior: The moderating role of safety climate

For a deeper insight into the moderation effect of safety climate on the relationship between PIU and safety behavior, two simple slope lines were generated from the interaction model for- mula as follows: SB ¼ 19:031 þ ð 0:766 � PIUÞ þ ð0:146 � SCÞ þ ð0:031 � PIU � SCÞ ð4Þ For SC ¼ �x SD; SB ¼ 21:350 þ ð 0:274 � PIUÞ ð5Þ For SC ¼ �x þ SD; SB ¼ 22:759 þ ð0:026 � PIUÞ ð6Þ These lines are depicted in Fig 3 based various values of PIU. When safety climate was high (i.e. Mean + SD), the slope of regression line was very close to zero, indicating that PIU lost its effect on safety behavior in such situations. In contrast, when safety climate was low (i.e. Mean–SD), safety behavior was drastically decreased with the increase of PIU, suggesting that the lack of a positive safety climate made the negative effect of PIU on safety behavior stronger. Discussion Nowadays, as using the internet is inevitable for carrying out many occupational and non- occupational activities, PIU can be an emerging cause of unsafe work behavior. The addictive potential of the internet is progressively increased by reinforcing attention-capturing charac- teristics of websites and apps without sufficient consideration of its probable effects on human health, safety, and well-being [22, 47]. Although the relationship between PIU and accidents, particularly car and truck collisions, has been the subject of several studies [48, 49], studies investigating the relationship between PIU and safety behavior are rare. Meanwhile, the effect

of PIU and cyber-loafing on job performance has been shown to be inconsistent across Fig 3. The slope analysis of the moderation effect. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279767.g003 PLOS ONE Problematic internet use and safety behavior PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279767 December 30, 2022 8 / 13