Trends in youth’s videogame playing, overall computer use, and communication technology use: The impact of self-esteem and the Big Five personality factors

The objective of the current research is to model trends in video game playing, overall computer use, and communication technology use in a longitudinal sample of youths, aged 11–16 over a 3-year interval. In addition, individual difference characteristics that may be predictive of these trends were included, namely, socio-demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, and parental income) and personality characteristics (self-esteem, the Big Five personality factors). Findings suggested that youth increased their overall computer and communication technology use but decreased their videogame playing over time. Many individual differences predicted mean levels of these technologies with fewer predicting slopes. Conclusions, implications, and limitations are discussed.