RETRACTED: Does personality traits predict excessive use of internet technology among engineering students? Simple mediation analysis

Abstract

Internet technology has been invariably infused in all the aspects of engineering student’s life, excessive of which can lead to destruction in health, behaviour, academic grades and job performance. Personality disposition is one of the major factors in developing digital addiction among students from technical discipline. The study aims to explore the predictive ability of personality traits (introversion and emotional intelligence) on internet addiction and the mediating role of the emotional intelligence on the association between introversion and rampant usage of the internet. A sample of 260 students was picked up from engineering colleges with the mean age of 22.3 years. Internet Addiction Test, emotional intelligence questionnaire and McCroskey introversion scale were administered to gather related data. SPSS, structural equation modelling with partial least square and PROCESS macro were used to perform statistical and mediational analyses. The data were analysed with multivariate correlation, hierarchical regression, structural equation modelling and mediational analysis using the bootstrapping method. The results discovered that emotional intelligence and introversion have a noteworthy predictive effect on the level of internet addiction. Mediation analysis shows that emotional intelligence has full mediation effect on the relation between introversion and internet addiction. Excessive internet usage taking a toll on the mental and physical health of engineering students, whereas personality traits are playing a crucial role in developing such a behavioural addiction, and therefore, early detection and prevention is needed urgently.