Religiosity, adolescent internet usage motives and addiction: An exploratory study

Based on secularization theory, this paper analyzes religiosity's relationship with youths' Internet addiction tendencies via possible mediating Internet usage motivations (erotic, social, communication, entertainment and psychological escape). Using self-report questionnaire scales in a study of 1,596 Malaysian adolescent school students, a negative relationship between religiosity and Internet addiction tendency was found to be replicable for females across all four religions studied (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity). However, no such relationship was found for any of the corresponding male groups. This finding is discussed in terms of females being more likely than males to experience the spiritual element of religion and to adhere more to religious norms. The female religiosity - addiction relationship was found to be mediated by psychological escape motives for three of the four religious groups, and erotic motives for two of the groups. The former finding supports a previous claim that escape motives are a prime driver of Internet addictions. It is concluded that, via its prediction of religiosity's negative relationships with Internet usage, secularization theory plays a role in explaining lower likelihood of Internet addiction among more highly religious females, the finding being limited to females because of differing cross-gender socialization pressures.