Computer self efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the Internet and reported experience with the Internet, by gender, in an East European sample

Abstract

Seventy-four female and 76 male Romanian university students, from a wide mixture of courses, completed a Computer Self Efficacy Scale, a Computer Anxiety Scale, an attitude to the Internet Scale and gave information about their use of the Internet. Significant zero order correlations were obtained with the relationships being between higher computer self efficacy, lower computer anxiety, more positive attitudes towards the Internet and longer reported use of the Internet. Significant gender effects were found throughout, with males tending to report greater computer self efficacy, lower computer anxiety, more positive attitudes towards the Internet and longer use of the Internet than females. However, regression analysis indicted that reported Internet experience (use) was the only variable independently linked to gender. It is argued that the results tend to support the contention that the literature on attitudes and anxiety towards computers is liable to extrapolate to the Internet. In particular this may apply to the gender dimension of this literature. It is also argued that the countries of Eastern Europe may now be manifesting the gender variations in relation to technology that are found in Western Europe.