Internet addiction among undergraduates in University of Ibadan: Imperative for counselling intervention

Abstract

The extent to which psychological and contextual factors (locus of control, self-concept and parenting styles) correlate with internet addiction among undergraduates in University of Ibadan was examined in this study. Survey design of correlational type was adopted to execute the study. Simple random sampling technique was utilized to draw four hundred and forty-two (Male: 247=female=195) undergraduates with age range of 16 to 26 year ( x =1.44; SD=.49) from University of Ibadan. The Data source was four self-report questionnaire namely; Young (1996) internet Addition Test; Darling and Toyokawa (1997) Parenting Style Inventory; Levenson (1974) Locus of Control scale and Robinson (1989) self concept questionnaire. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression were used to analyze data at 0.05 level of significance. Result show that the hypothesized variables have significant correlation with internet addition. The composite contribution of the independent variables to the prediction of internet addition was significant. It jointly contributed for about 20% of the variance in the prediction of internet addition of the respondents. Locus of control was the most potent (β=0.128; t =2.554; P<0.05) while self concept had the least contribution to the prediction of internet addition. The outcome has implications for parents, psychologists, educators and policy makers.

Keywords: Locus of control, parenting style, self-concept and internet addiction