Linking Psychological Attributes and Gender to Smartphone Addiction among University Undergraduates: A Nigerian Study

Abstract

The study examined the relative contributions of psychological attributes (loneliness, extraversion and self-esteem) and gender to smartphone addiction. The study was a survey that utilized a cross-sectional design that purposively sampled 271 in-school smartphone users. The sample was made up of 165 male and 106 female undergraduates selected from three public tertiary institutions in southwest Nigeria. Data were collected with a questionnaire that contained standardized scales that measured the study variables. These were revalidated to ascertain their suitability for use in the present study and all yielded acceptable alpha coefficients: loneliness (α = .88), extraversion (α = .61), self-esteem (α = .80), and Test of mobile-phone dependence use (α = .94). Also examined in the study was the influence of gender on smartphone addiction. Result indicated significant positive relationships among loneliness (r = .29; P <.05), extraversion (r = .43; P<.001), self-esteem (r = .48; P<.001) and smartphone addiction respectively. Result further revealed significant joint influence of loneliness, extraversion and self-esteem on smartphone addiction (R2 = .33; P <.01). There was no significant gender influence on smartphone addiction (p >.05). Personality profile of smartphone addicts should form a cardinal ingredient of treatment and management protocols of the condition.