Relationships among Internet use, personality, and social support

摘要

Competing claims have been presented in the literature regarding the impact of Internet use on social support. Some theorists have suggested that Internet use increases social interaction and support (Silverman, 1999, American Psychologist 54, 780–781), while others have argued that it leads to decreased interaction and support (Kiesler & Kraut, 1999, American Psychologist 54, 783–784). This study was designed to address this issue by examining the relationships among Internet use, personality, and perceived social support. Two-hundred and six participants completed questionnaires that assessed Internet use, personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness), and perceived social support. Using principal components analysis, individual computer activities were combined into three primary factors: Technical, Information Exchange, and Leisure. Correlation and regression analyses revealed only a marginal relationship between computer use and social support. Similarly, only modest associations were found between personality and computer use. However, personality did moderate the relationship between computer use and social support. That is, on two occasions, high computer use coupled with high personality was associated with decreased perceived social support and on a third occasion this combination resulted in increased perceived social support. These results help to address some of the inconsistencies that have been reported in the literature.