Personality Traits as Predictors of Social Networks Addiction among University Students.

Social network platforms (SNPs) are online sites that enable users to create public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on common interests and beliefs. Given their social-oriented characteristics, SNPs provide their users with an enjoyable interaction experiences. However, these experiences may encourage users to uses these platforms extensively and hence results in addictive use behaviors. By incorporating both, psychological and technological perspectives, this study aimed at examining the relationship between personality traits and social network platforms (SNPs) addiction. While a number of other studies have highlighted the danger that excessive SNPs may pose to university students as a population group, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that discusses this issue in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Data was collected from 434 students at a private American University in the Stat of Kuwait. Four out of the five- factor model of personality, including: Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness to experience, and Agreeableness show significant association with SNPs addiction, while the Conscientiousness factor was not significant. Partial Least Squares (PLS) of Structured Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis demonstrates that 53% of the variance of SNPs addiction was explained by the five-factor model of personality. Results of this study may benefit universities in dealing with students who suffer from this kind of addiction. The research limitations and implications are discussed.