Working remotely from home within lockdown conditions can have implications on wellbeing and how people perceive and interact with technology to coordinate, communicate and collaborate with others. Previous research has shown relationships amongst life satisfaction, loneliness and problematic internet use and, also, between the latter and cyber security behaviours. We re-examine these relationships during the UK COVID-19 lockdown through an online survey completed by 299 participants working from home. The survey included demographics and work conditions questions and also the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), UCLA-3 Loneliness Scale, Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire-Short Form-6 (PIUQ-SF-6), and Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS). Structural equation modelling revealed that most notably, loneliness positively predicted problematic internet use, life satisfaction negatively predicted problematic internet use and that problematic internet use negatively predicted cyber security behaviours Implications includes educational and therapeutic interventions which could be applied by employers/governing bodies to target those at risk of loneliness and problematic internet use with the hope of mitigating these experiences and improving cyber security behaviours. The current findings may be especially relevant should waves of COVID-19 or similar crisis are experienced, and when working from home becomes a norm for some organisations and jobs.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have attempted to reduce virus transmission by implementing lockdown procedures, leading to increased social isolation and a new reliance on technology and the internet for work and social communication. We examined people’s experiences working from home in the UK to identify risk factors of problematic internet use during the first lockdown period, specifically looking at life satisfaction, loneliness, and gender. A total of 299 adults completed the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire-Short-Form-6, UCLA-3 Item Loneliness Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale online. Through structural equation modelling, we found that loneliness positively predicted problematic internet use while gender had no effect. Life satisfaction and age positively predicted loneliness but had no direct effect on problematic internet use, suggesting loneliness fully mediated their relationship with problematic internet use. Our study serves as a benchmark study of problematic internet use among those working from home during lockdown conditions, which may be utilized by future researchers exploring longitudinal patterns post-pandemic.