Technological use behaviors, personality and university performance among italian university students

Abstract

Aims of this study are to improve the understanding of the types of internet use among young people, surveying the average time spent online weekly and the different types of internet use; to asses the risk of internet addiction and to investigate the relationship between behaviours in technological use, personality characteristics and academic performance. The sample consists of 870 Italian third-year university students. The Multidimensional Personality Profile (MPP), the Questionnaire about the Internet use, abuse and addiction (UADI) and a personal data sheet (age, gender, type of faculty attended, year of course, number of university exams taken and average of marks obtained) have been administered online. The use of the Internet in our sample is mainly not a problematical one. Significant correlations were found between Self regulation and Dissociation (r = −0.36) and between Machiavellism/cynism and Escape (r = 0.36), Dissociation (r = 0.33) and Experimentation (r = 0.34). Academic performance of the students was significantly and negatively correlated with total internet addiction score (r= - 0,34)