Addictive internet behaviors: The role of trait emotional intelligence, self-esteem, age, and gender.

Internet is essential part of everyday life and certainly facilitate it on several levels. It is a helpful information tool, and knowledge, but its unlimited range often is risky for users. The behaviors and outcomes of internet abuse have already been well-documented in the literature; less is known about the role of personal factors that reinforce internet addiction. Based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model (I-PACE), the current study investigates the role of trait emotional intelligence and self-esteem, age, and gender in relation to addictive internet behaviors. We conducted an online investigation among respondents. The participants were Italian university students who voluntarily completed the Abuse Internet Addiction scale (UADI) and the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale. Path analysis results revealed that both trait emotional intelligence and self-esteem had a protective direct effect on addictive internet behaviors. Age negatively affects addictive internet behaviors; younger are more likely to develop addictive internet behaviors than older individuals. Finally, we did not find an effect of gender on addictive internet behaviors. Our results suggest the need to develop prevention plans for addictive internet behaviors and educational programs to increase emotional intelligence and self-esteem components to help younger to improve interpersonal and emotional management skills to better handle their internet use.

The Propensity to Forgive and Self-Esteem in Catholic and Islamic Contexts: Italy and Turkey.

This study explores the relationship between the propensity to forgive and self-esteem in Italian (Christian tradition) and Turkish (Islamic tradition) samples. Italian and Turkish versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) were used. The sample consisted of 837 university students aged 18-35 (49% women and 51% men). Correlation analysis, for the total sample and for Italian and turkish students separately, and 2-way between groups ANOVA were used to examine the association between self-esteem and forgiveness and main effects and interactions of country and gender as they relate to HFS and RSES scores. Post-hoc analyses were performed where appropriate. The results revealed that self-esteem correlated strongly with self-forgiveness and forgiveness of situations; however, we found no significant relationship between forgiveness of others and self-esteem. Further, Italian and Turkish respondents did not differ in their levels of self-esteem or in their levels of self-forgiveness, but we found that Italian students have a higher propensity to forgive others and situations than Turkish students. Future research will need to explore how other religious traditions are linked to the propensity to forgive, as well as the relationship between self-esteem and propensity to forgive in other countries, including participants of different ages.

Gender and age differences in forgivingness in Italian and Polish samples.

This study explores gender and age differences in forgivingness using the crosscultural and stress-and-coping perspective. Polish and Italian versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) were used. The sample consisted of 1957 individuals aged 18-80 (61% females and 39% males). A 3-way between groups ANOVA was used to examine the main effects and interactions of country, age and gender as they relate to total HFS score. Post-hoc analyses were performed where appropriate. The results revealed that Polish and Italian respondents did not differ in the level of the general tendency to forgive. Gender differences in trait forgiveness were reported in whole sample and in Italian subsample, showing males to be more forgiving than females. Further, our results for all study participants, in Polish subsample and among Italian males showed that older adults were more forgiving than young respondents, which is consistent with the previous findings showing an increase in forgivingness with age.