Investigation of the relationship between personality domains, psychological well-being and digital addiction levels of university students

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits, psychological well-being levels, digital addiction levels of university students. For this purpose, it was aimed to determine the explanatory effect of university students' personality traits, psychological well-being levels and digital addiction levels. Within the scope of the study, it is aimed to reveal the differentiation of personality traits, psychological well-being levels and digital addiction levels of university students according to the variables of gender, age, class level, department they study and average daily use of digital media tools. Within the scope of the current research, the relational screening model was used. The research population consisted of the students from Dokuz Eylul University Buca Education Faculty who continue their education between the years 2020-2021. The sample consisted of 318 university students, 83% of them were women, 17% of them were men and their average age is 21. In the research, a questionaire consisting of the participants' gender, age, class levels, the department they studied and the daily use of digital media tools, the Ten-Item Personality Scale, and the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PERMA) with Digital Addiction Scale were the tools to collect data in the study. For this study, SPSS 16.0 program was used to analyze the data. In the analyzes according to gender, the total score of the scale and the scores of the sub-dimensions of the scales showed a normal distribution, so an independent two-sample t-test analysis was performed. ANOVA test was used in our comparisons of age groups, grade level, department and daily usage time of digital media tools. The LSD post hoc test was used to find the source of the difference in comparisons. In the analysis of the relationship between personality traits, psychological well-being and digital addiction variables, Pearson correlation; Multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the explanatory effect of personality traits on psychological well-being and digital addiction. The level of statistical significance in the study was 0.05 (p<0.05). When the results are analyzed by gender, the emotional stability level of the male participants and the negative emotions level of the female participants are high. Women's levels of digital addiction, relapse and inability to quit are significantly higher than men. When the results of the research are analyzed according to age, it is understood that the level of digital addictions preventing the flow of life is high in university students under the age of 22.The emotional stability levels of the students between18 and 19 ages old were low, and the agreeableness levels of the students between18 and 19 ages and the students between 20 and 21 ages were higher than the levels of the students at 24 ages and older. The success score of the students between 22 and 23 ages was higher than the other groups. The results of the research were examined according to the grade level. It is revealed the 1st year students were overused and this prevents their life flow, and their psychological well-being levels are lower than those of other age groups. The results of the research were analyzed by department, relationship score of the participants who studied in Turkish, mathematics, PCG, science, social sciences, foreign language and classroom teaching departments; Meaning score of participants studying in PCG, science and social sciences departments; the agreeableness scores of the participants who studied in science, classroom teaching, foreign language, mathematics departments; were significantly higher than those studying in other departments. Emotional stability scores of the participants who studied in PCG, social sciences, foreign language and classroom teaching departments were significantly higher then the students from mathematics, painting/music, Turkish departments. The digital addiction scores of the students who studied in Turkish, mathematics and PCG departments were higher than the students from science department. The results of the research were analyzed according to the time spent daily for using digital media tools, for the students who were using 3 or more hours a day, their dijital addcition level was high, the level of success of university students increases as the time spent daily for using digital media tools decreases. According to the time spent daily, as the duration increased their negative affect levels increased. The relapse score of the participants who used digital media tools for 5 hours or more a day was significantly higher than the score of the participants who used digital media tools for 1-2 hours a day. The score of preventing the flow of life of the participants who used digital media tools for 9 hours or more a day was significantly high according to the score of the students who used digital media tools for 1-6 hours a day. The students who used digital media tools daily for 7 hours or more had high emotional state score rather than the students who used digital media tools for 1-6 hours a day. Participants who used digital media tools for 3 hours or more per day had a significantly higher score for not being able to quit than those who used digital media tools for 1-2 hours a day. According to the results, the negative relation between psychological well-being and digital addiction; the positive relation between personality traits and psychological well-being dimensions, negative relation between personality traits and negative emotions sub dimension were found. The results also indicated that the personality traits of the university students together explained about 37% of the change in their psychological well-being levels. According to the model, emotionally stable, responsible and extroverted personality traits lead to an increase in psychological well-being. The results also indicated that the personality traits of the university students together explained about 11% of the change in their digital addiction levels. According to the model, emotionally stable and responsible personality traits cause a decrease in digital addiction.