The relationship between schizotypal personality and internet addiction in university students

The current study assessed the relationship between problematic internet behaviors, as measured by the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and schizotypal personality traits, measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE(B)). One hundred participants (aged between 20 and 30) were given a battery of psychometric assessments, including the IAT and O-LIFE(B), as well as measures of depression, and anxiety. Around 30% of the sample displayed responses to the IAT that suggested some problems controlling internet behaviors, and there was no gender difference in these figures. There were associations between both the impulsive nonconformity and introverted anhedonia schizotypal personality traits and problematic internet use, over and above those associated with depression and anxiety. This replicates some previous work that implies that impulsiveness and depression are predictive of behavioral addictions, but places them within a single construct. The findings also support the notion of two groups of users who display problematic internet behaviors - impulsive and depressed individuals.