title: Big five personality and adolescent Internet addiction: The mediating role of coping style.
abstract: This study examined the unique associations between big five personality traits and adolescent Internet addiction (IA), as well as the mediating role of coping style underlying these relations. Our theoretical model was tested with 998 adolescents. Participants provided self-report data on demographic variables, big five personality traits, coping style, and IA. After controlling for demographic variables, it was found that agreeableness and conscientiousness were negatively associated with IA, whereas extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience were positively associated with IA. Mediation analyses further indicated that conscientiousness had an indirect impact on adolescent IA through decreased emotion-focused coping, whereas extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience had indirect impacts on adolescent IA through increased emotion-focused coping. In contrast, problem-focused coping had no mediating role. These findings suggest that emotion-focused coping may, in part, account for the association between big five personality and adolescent IA.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yueyue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, China. Electronic address: lidongping@mail.ccnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dongping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Educational Science, Jiaying University, Meizhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Yanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Education, Arts and Sciences College of Chengdu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Liyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory
keywords: Adolescents; Big five personality; Coping style; Internet addiction