Internet Addiction and its Relationship to Openness to Experience among Preparatory School Students in the Center of Nineveh Governorate.

Abstract

The aim of this research is to identify the level of internet addiction and openness to experience among middle school students, to identify the level of differences in both internet addiction and openness to experience according to the variables of gender and grade, and to identify the relationship between internet addiction and openness to experience among middle school students. The research sample consisted of (306) male and female students from the middle school, specifically from the fourth and fifth grades (scientific/biological tracks). To achieve the research objectives, the researcher adopted the Musa (2015) scale for measuring internet addiction and the Abu Nab (2019) scale for measuring openness to experience. After establishing face validity by presenting it to experts and verifying the reliability of both scales using the test-retest method, the data were statistically processed using SPSS software. The results showed that the sample members had a high level of internet addiction and openness to experience, and that there was a statistically significant difference in the level of internet addiction according to the grade variable, favoring the fifth grade. No statistically significant difference was found in the level of openness to experience Internet addiction according to the gender variable, and the absence of a statistically significant difference in the level of openness to experience according to the gender and grade variables, in addition to the existence of a positive correlation between the variables of internet addiction and openness to experience.