Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Smartphone Addiction Among Undergraduates: Roles of Personality Traits and Demographic Factors

  • Original research
  • Published:
Technology, Knowledge and Learning Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the association of smartphone addiction with domains of the big five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) after controlling for individual differences such as age, gender, and amount of daily smartphone and internet use. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design, with data gathered from 494 university students using the Turkish adaptation of the Big Five Inventory and Smartphone Addiction Scale. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were applied in order to test two hypotheses. The study put forth that after controlling for the individual differences, the big five personality traits were found to significantly predict smartphone addiction. Agreeableness and conscientiousness were shown to be negative predictors, neuroticism was a positive predictor, and extraversion and openness to experience were not found to be significant predictors. The results of the study are discussed, and some implications are suggested, with revealing the relationship between personality traits and smartphone addiction aiming to help policymakers and practitioners in designing awareness raising activities in schools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Furiah, S. A. A., & Al-Awidi, H. M. (2018). Teachers’ change readiness for the adoption of smartphone technology: Personal concerns and technological competency. Technology, Knowledge and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-018-9396-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Gjertsen, S. R., Krossbakken, E., Kvam, S., & Pallesen, S. (2013). The relationships between behavioral addictions and the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2(2), 30–99. https://doi.org/10.1556/JBA.2.2013.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arpaci, İ., & Kocadag Unver, T. (2020). Moderating role of gender in the relationship between big five personality traits and smartphone addiction. Psychiatric Quarterley. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09718-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bal, E., & Balci, Ş. (2020). Smartphone addiction: A study on the efficacy of personality traits and usage patterns. Journal of Erciyes Communication, 7(1), 194–369. https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.654569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, A., & Phillips, J. G. (2005). Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8, 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2005.8.39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biglu, M. H., & Ghavami, M. (2016). Factors influencing dependence on mobile phone. Journal of Analytical Research in Clinical Medicine, 4(3), 158–162. https://doi.org/10.15171/jarcm.2016.026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Błachnio, A., Przepiorka, A., Senol-Durak, E., Durak, M., & Sherstyuk, L. (2017). The role of personality traits in Facebook and Internet addictions: A study on Polish, Turkish, and Ukrainian samples. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 269–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.037.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butt, S., & Phillips, J. G. (2008). Personality and self reported mobile phone use. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(2), 346–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2007.01.019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caplan, S. E. (2010). Theory and measurement of generalized problematic Internet use: A two-step approach. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1089–1097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cha, S.-S., & Seo, B.-K. (2018). Smartphone use and smartphone addiction in middle school students in Korea: Prevalence, social networking service and game use. Health Psychology Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055102918755046.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho, H.-Y., Kim, D. J., & Park, J. W. (2017). Stress and adult smartphone addiction: Mediation by self-control, neuroticism, and extraversion. Stress and Health, 33(5), 624–630. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2749.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Çikrikci, Ö., Griffiths, M. D., & Erzen, C. (2019). Testing the mediating role of phubbing in the relationship between the big five personality traits and satisfaction with life. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00115-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cocoradă, E., Maican, C. I., Cazan, A.-M., & Maican, M. A. (2018). Assessing the smartphone addiction risk and its associations with personality traits among adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, 93, 345–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.08.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Boston, MA: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demirci, K., Orhan, H., Demirdas, A., Akpinar, A., & Sert, H. (2014). Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the smartphone addiction scale in a younger population. Bulletin of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 24(3), 226–234. https://doi.org/10.5455/bcp.20140710040824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Digital in 2018. (2018). Global digital report 2018. We are social. Retrieved from https://digitalreport.wearesocial.com/. Accessed 27 Sept 2018.

  • Doğan, T. (2013). Beş faktör kişilik özellikleri ve öznel iyi oluş (The five factor personality traits and subjective well-being). Journal of Doğuş University, 14(1), 56–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K. M., & Walsh, S. P. (2008). Personality and self-esteem as predictors of young people’s technology use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739–741. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erdem, C., & Erişti, B. (2018). Paving the way for media literacy instruction in preservice teacher education: Prospective teachers’ levels of media literacy skills. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 795–810. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11450a.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Felisoni, D. D., & Godoi, A. A. (2018). Cell phone usage and academic performance: An experiment. Computers & Education, 117, 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.10.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glass, R., Prichard, J., Lafortune, A., & Schwab, N. (2013). The influence of personality and Facebook use on student academic performance. Issues in Information Systems, 14(2), 119–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gökçearslan, Ş., Kuşkaya Mumcu, F., Haşlaman, T., & Demiraslan Çevik, Y. (2016). Modelling smartphone addiction: The role of smartphone usage, self-regulation, general self-efficacy and cyberloafing in university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 639–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.091.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graziano, W. G., & Eisenberg, N. H. (1997). Agreeableness: A dimension of personality. In R. Hogan, J. Johnson, & S. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 795–824). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Herrero, J., Uruena, A., Torres, A., & Hidalgo, A. (2019). Smartphone addiction: Psychosocial correlates, risky attitudes, and smartphone harm. Journal of Risk Research, 22(1), 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2017.1351472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, F.-Y., Chiu, S.-I., & Huang, D.-H. (2012). A model of the relationship between psychological characteristics, mobile phone addiction and use of mobile phones by Taiwanese university female students. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(6), 2152–2159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.06.020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horwood, S., & Anglim, J. (2018). Personality and problematic smartphone use: A facet-level analysis using the five factor model and HEXACO frameworks. Computers in Human Behavior, 85, 349–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horzum, M. B., Ayas, T., & Padır, M. A. (2017). Adaptation of big five personality traits scale to Turkish culture. Sakarya University Journal of Education, 7(2), 398–408. https://doi.org/10.19126/suje.298430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosťovecký, M., & Prokop, P. (2018). The relationship between internet addiction and personality traits in Slovak secondary schools students. Journal of Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Informatics, 14(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.2478/jamsi-2018-0006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hussain, Z., & Pontes, H. M. (2018). Personality, internet addiction, and other technological addictions: A psychological examination of personality traits and technological addictions. In B. Bozoglan (Ed.), Psychological, social, and cultural aspects of internet addiction (pp. 45–71). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Işık, M., & Kaptangil, İ. (2018). The relation of smartphone addiction to social media usage and five factor personality trait: A research on university students. Journal of Human and Social Science Researches, 7(2), 695–717.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaradat, M.-I. R. M., & Atyeh, A. J. (2017). Do personality traits play a role in social media addiction? Key considerations for successful optimized model to avoid social networking sites addiction: A developing country perspective. International Journal of Computer Science and Networking Security, 17(8), 120–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • John, O. P., Naumann, L. P., & Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative big five trait taxonomy: History, Measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 114–158). New York, NY: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • John, O. P., & Srivasta, S. (1999). The big five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). New York, NY: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayiş, A. R., Satici, S. A., Yilmaz, M. F., Şimşek, D., Ceyhan, E., & Bakioğlu, F. (2016). Big five-personality trait and internet addiction: A meta-analytic review. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 35–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H.-J., Min, J.-Y., Kim, H.-J., & Min, K.-B. (2019). Association between psychological and self-assessed health status and smartphone overuse among Korean college students. Journal of Mental Health, 28(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1370641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumcagiz, H. (2019). Quality of life as a predictor of smartphone addiction risk among adolescents. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 24, 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9348-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuss, D. J., van Rooij, A. J., Shorter, G. W., Griffiths, M. D., & van de Mheen, D. (2013). Internet addiction in adolescents: Prevalence and risk factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(5), 1987–1996. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CHB.2013.04.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon, M., Kim, D.-J., Cho, H., & Yang, S. (2013a). The smartphone addiction scale: Development and validation of a short version for adolescents. PLoS ONE, 8(12), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon, M., Lee, J.-Y., Won, W.-Y., Park, J.-W., Min, J.-A., & Hahn, C. (2013b). Development and validation of a smartphone addiction scale (SAS). PLoS ONE, 8(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056936.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landers, R. N., & Lounsbury, J. W. (2006). An investigation of big five and narrow personality traits in relation to internet usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 22(2), 283–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane, W., & Manner, C. (2011). The impact of personality traits on smartphone ownership and use. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(17), 22–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepp, A., Li, J., Barkley, J. E., & Salehi-Esfahani, S. (2015). Exploring the relationships between college students’ cell phone use, personality and leisure. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 210–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahajan, R., Gupta, R., & Bakhshi, A. (2017). Personality, loneliness and subjective well-being as predictors of problematic mobile phone usage. International Journal of Applied Social Science, 4(11–12), 472–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1999). A five-factor theory of personality. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 139–153). New York, NY: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor-model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 175–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morahan-Martin, J., & Schumacher, P. (2000). Incidence and correlates of pathological Internet use among college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 16(1), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0747-5632(99)00049-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öztürk, C., Bektaş, M., Ayar, D., Özgüven Öztornacı, B., & Yağcı, D. (2015). Association between personality traits and risk of internet addiction in adolescents. Asian Nursing Research, 9(2), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2015.01.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panda, A., & Jain, N. K. (2018). Compulsive smartphone usage and users’ ill-being among young Indians: Does personality matter? Telematics and Informatics, 35(5), 1355–1372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.03.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, C., & Hussain, Z. (2016). Smartphone addiction and associated psychological factors. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 3(2), 193–207. https://doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2016.3.0103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterka-Bonetta, J., Sindermann, C., Elhai, C. D., & Montag, C. (2019). Personality associations with smartphone and internet use disorder: A comparison study including links to impulsivity and social anxiety. Front Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rammstedt, B., & John, O. P. (2007). Measuring personality in one minute or less: A 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory in English and German. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(1), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.02.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, J. A., Pullig, C., & Manolis, C. (2015). I need my smartphone: A hierarchical model of personality and cell-phone addiction. Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.01.049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The big five personality factors and personal values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 789–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rozgonjuk, D., Levine, J. C., Hall, B. J., & Elhai, J. D. (2018). The association between problematic smartphone use, depression and anxiety symptom severity, and objectively measured smartphone use over one week. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shin, C., & Dey, A. K. (2013). Automatically detecting problematic use of smartphones. Paper presented at UbiComp’13, Zurich, Switzerland.

  • Stachl, C., Hilbert, S., Au, J.-Q., Buschek, D., De Luca, A., Bischl, B., et al. (2017). Personality traits predict smartphone usage. European Journal of Personality, 31(6), 701–722. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takao, M. (2014). Problematic mobile phone use and big-five personality domains. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 39(2), 111–113. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.132736.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TurkStat. (2018). Turkish Statistical Institute Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage survey on households and individuals. Retrieved from http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/VeriBilgi.do?alt_id=1028. Accessed 29 Sept 2018.

  • Uzun, A. M., & Ünal, E. (2018). An exploration of university students’ generalized problematic internet use. Journal of Theoretical Educational Science, 11(1), 83–100. https://doi.org/10.30831/akukeg.361141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uzun, A. M., Unal, E., & Tokel, S. T. (2014). Exploring internet addiction, academic procrastination and general procrastination among pre-service ICT teachers. Mevlana International Journal of Education, 4(1), 189–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2009). Social consequences of the Internet for adolescents: A decade of research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(1), 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Deursen, A. J. A. M., Bolle, C. L., Hegner, S. M., & Kommers, P. A. M. (2015). Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior: The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 411–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Volungis, A. M., Kalpidou, M., Popores, C., & Joyce, M. (2020). Smartphone addiction and its relationship with indices of social-emotional distress and personality. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00119-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilmer, H. H., Sherman, L. E., & Chein, J. M. (2017). Smartphones and cognition: A review of research exploring the links between mobile technology habits and cognitive functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, K. S. (1998). Internet addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 1, 237–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, Y., Li, D., Li, X., Wang, Y., & Zhao, L. (2017). Big five personality and adolescent internet addiction: The mediating role of coping style. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 42–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.08.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Afyon Kocatepe University, 03200, Afyon, Turkey

    Cahit Erdem & Ahmet Murat Uzun

Authors
  1. Cahit Erdem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ahmet Murat Uzun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cahit Erdem.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Erdem, C., Uzun, A.M. Smartphone Addiction Among Undergraduates: Roles of Personality Traits and Demographic Factors. Tech Know Learn 27, 579–597 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09467-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09467-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation