title: Gender, Internet identification, and Internet anxiety: correlates of Internet use.
abstract: This paper reports a study that investigated the effects of gender, Internet anxiety, and Internet identification on use of the Internet. The study involved 608 undergraduate students (490 females and 118 males). We surveyed the students' experience with the Internet, as well as their levels of Internet anxiety and Internet identification. We found a number of gender differences in participants' use of the Internet. Males were proportionally more likely to have their own web page than were females. They used the Internet more than females; in particular, they were more likely to use game websites, to use other specialist websites, and to download material from the Internet. However, females did not use the Internet for communication more than males. There was a significant positive relationship between Internet identification and total use of the Internet, and a significant negative relationship between Internet anxiety and total use of the Internet. Controlling for Internet identification and Internet anxiety, we found a significant and negative correlation between gender and use of the Internet. In total, all three of our predictors accounted for 40% of the variance in general Internet use: with Internet identification accounting for 26%, Internet anxiety accounting for 11%, and gender accounting for 3%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, UK. R.Joiner@Bath.ac.uk
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Joiner
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gavin
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duffield
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brosnan
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crook
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Durndell
authors.forename: Pam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maras
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Adrian J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lovatt
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires