Psychological Risk Factors that Predict Social Networking and Internet Addiction in Adolescents

Montserrat Peris, Usue de la Barrera, Konstanze Schoeps and Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla
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Montserrat Peris: Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatments, University of the Basque Country, 20018 San Sebastian, Spain
Usue de la Barrera: Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Konstanze Schoeps: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, European University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla: Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: Adolescents’ addictive use of social media and the internet is an increasing concern among parents, teachers, researchers and society. The purpose was to examine the contribution of body self-esteem, personality traits, and demographic factors in the prediction of adolescents’ addictive use of social media and the internet. The participants were 447 Spanish adolescents aged 13−16 years ( M = 14.90, SD = 0.81, 56.2% women). We measured gender, age, body self-esteem (body satisfaction and physical attractiveness), personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, disinhibition and narcissism) and social networking and internet addiction (internet addiction symptoms, social media use, geek behaviour, and nomophobia). The effects of gender, age, body self-esteem and personality on the different dimensions of internet addiction were estimated, conducting hierarchical linear multiple regression analysis and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results evidenced different pathways explaining four types of adolescents’ internet addiction: gender and disinhibition were the most relevant predictors of addiction symptoms; gender combined with physical attractiveness best explained social media use; narcissism and neuroticism appear to be the most relevant predictors of geek behaviour; and narcissism was the variable that best explained nomophobia. Furthermore, the advantages and differences between both methodologies (regressions vs. QCA) were discussed.

Keywords: adolescents; internet addiction; social networking; body self-esteem; personality traits; fsQCA models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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