Personality traits, interpersonal relationships, online social support, and Facebook addiction

Using 894 college students in Taiwan, we found out that only 1% of the sample was classified as addicts, but 17.8% was on the alert stage.Approximate 80% of the sample used Facebook everyday, and 10% of them spent more than 8h a day.Interpersonal relationships and online social support was found positively related to Facebook addiction.Some personality traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism were negatively associated with Facebook addiction.Online interpersonal relationship and neuroticism were found to be the prominent predictors of Facebook addiction. Because of the prevalence of mobile devices, the overuse of social networking sites has become a global phenomenon. One of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook, has received a considerable attention in recent years, and the excessive use of Facebook has become a major concern in schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons for Facebook addiction. By surveying 894 college students in Taiwan, we found that although only 1% was classified as addicts, 17.8% were in the alert group. Approximately 80% of the students used Facebook every day, and 10% spent more than 8h a day on Facebook. Interpersonal relationships and online social support were found to be positively associated with Facebook addiction; however, some personality traits, such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, were negatively associated with Facebook addiction. Online interpersonal relationships and neuroticism were found to be prominent predictors of Facebook addiction. Practical implications are provided herein.

[1]  Nam-Seok Kim,et al.  Comparison of Problematic Internet and Alcohol Use and Attachment Styles Among Industrial Workers in Korea , 2011, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[2]  Chun-Tuan Chang,et al.  The dark side of smartphone usage: Psychological traits, compulsive behavior and technostress , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[3]  方紫薇 Tzu-Wei Fang.  網路沉迷、因應、孤寂感與網路社會支持之關係:男女大學生之比較Relations among Problematic Internet Use, Coping, loneliness and Online Social Support : A Comparison of Male and Female Undergraduates. , 2010 .

[4]  Jennifer L. Glenar,et al.  Comparison of Criterion-Related Validity Coefficients for the Mini-Markers and Goldberg's Markers of the Big Five Personality Factors , 1998 .

[5]  Christian Montag,et al.  Self-esteem, personality and Internet Addiction: A cross-cultural comparison study , 2014 .

[6]  Kimberly Young,et al.  Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[7]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  IN STUDENTS : PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS 1 Internet addiction in students : Prevalence and risk factors , 2014 .

[8]  C. S. Andreassen,et al.  Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale , 2012, Psychological reports.

[9]  Selim Günüç,et al.  The relationships between Turkish adolescents' Internet addiction, their perceived social support and family activities , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[10]  Rachel Kowert,et al.  Attachment style, social skills, and Facebook use amongst adults , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[11]  S. Cobb.  Presidential Address-1976. Social support as a moderator of life stress. , 1976, Psychosomatic medicine.

[12]  M. Griffiths.  Internet addiction: Does it really exist? , 1998 .

[13]  Mohammad Salehan,et al.  Social networking on smartphones: When mobile phones become addictive , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[14]  Jin-Liang Wang,et al.  The relationships among the Big Five Personality factors, self-esteem, narcissism, and sensation-seeking to Chinese University students' uses of social networking sites (SNSs) , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[15]  Betül Aydm,et al.  Internet addiction among adolescents: The role of self-esteem , 2011 .

[16]  Tzung Lieh Yeh,et al.  The risk factors of Internet addiction—A survey of university freshmen , 2009, Psychiatry Research.

[17]  Chien Chou,et al.  A Review of the Research on Internet Addiction , 2005 .

[18]  Craig Ross,et al.  Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use , 2009, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[19]  Jonathan J. Kandell,et al.  Internet Addiction on Campus: The Vulnerability of College Students , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[20]  G. Saucier.  Mini-markers: a brief version of Goldberg's unipolar big-five markers. , 1994, Journal of personality assessment.

[21]  Wee-Kheng Tan,et al.  Internet applications use and personality , 2014, Telematics Informatics.

[22]  Mark Batey,et al.  A tale of two sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[23]  K. Young.  Internet Addiction , 2004 .

[24]  Katherine M. White,et al.  The Theory of Planned Behavior Applied to Young People's Use of Social Networking Web Sites , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[25]  R. Grieve,et al.  When Facebook is easier than face-to-face: Social support derived from Facebook in socially anxious individuals , 2014 .

[26]  C. Sherbourne,et al.  The MOS social support survey. , 1991, Social science & medicine.

[27]  Christopher Castille,et al.  The Five Factor Model of personality and employees' excessive use of technology , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..