Internet Addiction among Adolescents: The Influence of Gender and Personality
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Date
2017
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Publisher
African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Abstract
The increasing use of internet for economic and societal sustenance, along with adolescents’ exposure and encouragement towards being computer inclined has necessitated the need to investigate the extent and contributions of personality traits on internet addictions among male and female adolescents separately. Using the expo-factor design, 300 adolescents (male = 165; female = 135) whose age ranges from 16 to 21 (Mean = 20.52; SD = 2.49) were selected from a State University in Nigeria. Administering the Big Five Inventory and Internet Addiction Test, 5 hypotheses were tested. The findings revealed that internet addiction decreases with increase in agreeableness (R2 = .16, β = -.40, p< .01) and conscientiousness (R2 = .19, β = -.21, p< .05) personality traits among male adolescents, while internet addiction decreases with increase in agreeableness (R2 = .16, β = -.40, p <.01) among female adolescents, but with less variance contributed compared to that of male. Both gender experienced internet addiction increasing with increase in neuroticism personality trait [male-(R2 = .27, β = .12, p> .05); female-(R2 = .20, β = .12, p> .05)], with more variance contributed by male compared to female adolescents. The society and concerned care giver should consider adolescents with these personality factors and provide the required support and control as regard utilization of the internet.
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Keywords
Personality traits, Internet addiction, Gender, Adolescents