Addiction to the internet and personality characteristics: A study with Portuguese university students

Abstract

The problematic use of the internet mainly by the young is a current concern, in order to determine the prevalence of addictive use, as well as the possible association with the individual differences. This study intends to understand the relation between internet addiction and personality characteristics in the of five factors model. It was also proposed to analyze the relationship between sociodemographic variables, namely gender and age, and addiction to the internet. A total of 1050 university students from 17 to 35 years of age participated in the research, 633 female and 417 male, to whom a sociodemographic questionnaire was applied, Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) (1998) validated for the Portuguese population by Pontes et al.(2014),and also the Portuguese version of the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) (Magalhães et al.,2014).The main conclusions are that the more neurotic,more extroverted,less agreeableness,and less conscientious individuals show a higher degree of internet addiction. It was also observed that more younger and masculine individuals tend to be more internet addicted.The practical implications of the research,limitations and proposals for future studies are discussed.