Excessive use of the Internet, life satisfaction and personality factors

Cilj rada bilo je ispitivanje povezanosti prekomjerne upotrebe interneta s grupom sociodemografskih faktora, zadovoljstvom životom i osobinama ličnosti. U tu svrhu, uzorku od 186 korisnika interneta iz Srbije različitog spola i godina zadani su Big Five Inventory (BFI), Skala zadovoljstva životom i Skala internet adikcije, te prigodno konstruiran upitnik kojim su mjerene određene sociodemografske varijable. Rezultati su pokazali da su srednje obrazovani, nezaposleni i neoženjeni muškarci skloniji prekomjernoj upotrebi interneta u odnosu na ostale ispitanike. Dobivena je povezanost prekomjerne upotrebe interneta s više osobina ličnosti, međutim kada se promatraju nezavisni doprinosi objašnjenju fenomena, jedini statistički značajan prediktor fenomena iz grupe osobina ličnosti je Savjesnost. Ova osobina ima i najveću pojedinačnu korelaciju s prekomjernom upotrebom interneta od osobina ličnosti. Kada je zadovoljstvo životom u pitanju, podaci su pokazali da veza ovog konstrukta s prekomjernom upotrebom interneta nije direktna, već se ostvaruje posredno preko Savjesnosti kao medijatora.The goal of the paper was exploration of relations between excessive internet use and a set of sociodemographic factors, life satisfaction and personality traits. For that purpose a sample of 186 internet users was asked to complete the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Life Satisfaction Scale and the Internet Addiction Scale, as well as a questionnaire used to assess a set of sociodemographic variables. The results showed that males with a secondary education, who are unemployed and not married are more prone to excessive use of internet when compared to other participants. Excessive internet use was found to be related with several of the Big Five personality traits, but when independent contributions to the prediction of the phenomenon are considered, the only statistically significant predictor of the examined personality traits was Consciousness. This trait also has the single greatest correlation with excessive internet use of the five considered personality traits. Relative to life satisfaction, the results showed that the relation of this construct to excessive internet use is not a direct one, but that it is mediated by Consciousness