Cross-cultural Differences in the Relationship between Personality Traits and Mobile and Internet Addiction

HPR

Health Psychology Research

TBA2420-8124

Health Psychology Research

10.14440/hpr.2699711

Research Article

Cross-cultural Differences in the Relationship between Personality Traits and Mobile and Internet Addictionhttps://healthpr.org/journal/HPR/13/2/10.14440/hpr.2699711VeselskýPavel,VáchováLucie,KvintováJana,RegecVojtech,LiuHongyang

2025

132

2025-06-19

Background The widespread use of the Internet and mobile phones has introduced significant addiction-related challenges. Objective This study investigates the role of personality in mobile phone and internet addiction across two cultural contexts. Methods A total of 1,075 Czech (84.9% female) and 710 Chinese (54.6% female) university students participated in this study. Data were collected using the Smartphone Addiction Scale, Internet Addiction Test, and Ten-Item Personality Measure, and analyzed using multiple regression models to assess cross-cultural differences. Results Significantly higher addiction rates were found among Chinese students. Among Czech students, internet addiction decreased with higher levels of conscientiousness (b=−1.11), emotional stability (b=−0.60), and openness (b=−0.42), explaining 16% of the variance. For Chinese students, only conscientiousness (b=−1.23) had a significant effect, explaining 6% of the variance. Openness differed significantly between groups (p=0.02). Regarding mobile phone addiction, both groups showed similar patterns, with addiction decreasing as agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness increased. Conscientiousness had a stronger impact among Chinese students (difference=0.98, p=0.008). Conclusion Further analysis indicated that the influence of personality on addiction varied by sex and country. These findings underscore the importance of personality and cultural factors in understanding technology addiction.Internet addiction, Mobile phone addiction, Personality traits, Cross-cultural differences

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