The Internet addiction components model and personality: Establishing construct validity via a nomological network

There is growing concern over excessive and sometimes problematic Internet use. Drawing upon the framework of the components model of addiction (Griffiths, 2005), Internet addiction appears as behavioural addiction characterised by the following symptoms: salience, withdrawal, tolerance, mood modification, relapse and conflict. A number of factors have been associated with an increased risk for Internet addiction, including personality traits. The overall aim of this study was to establish the association between personality traits and the Internet addiction components model in order to develop a theoretical framework via a nomological network. Internet addiction and personality traits were assessed in two independent samples of 3105 adolescents in the Netherlands and 2257 university students in England. The results indicate that low agreeableness and high neuroticism/low emotional stability are associated with the Internet addiction components factor in both samples. However, low conscientiousness and low resourcefulness predicted it in the adolescent sample only. The implications include the usage of the Internet addiction components model as parsimonious tool for the initial screening of potential clients in mental health institutes, and identifying populations at risk through their personality traits which may prove advantageous for the initiation of targeted prevention efforts.

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