Influence of Internet Addiction, Self Concept and Neuroticism on Marital Conflict. Chuku Chinwendu Nnebuife Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Enugu State University of Science and Technology chinwendu.chuku@yahoo.com. Abstract In our contemporary time, the conflict experienced in marital relationship has become a global phenomenon affecting members of every social class. The study examined the influence of internet addiction, self-concept and neuroticism on marital conflict in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State. Three hundred and four (304) participants (181 males and 123 females) were selected from married people in five archdeaconries in Obio/Akpor L.G.A. These participants were selected using multi stage sampling technique. The criterion sampling technique was used which was used which included being married for at least one year, currently staying with their spouses, of Christian faith etc. Internet addiction test (Young, 1997), semantic differential self-concept scale (Ezeilo, 1982), Neuroticism subscale of the Big five personality inventory (John, Donahue & Kentle, 1991) and marital conflict behavior checklist (Omeje, 1998) were the instruments used in the study. The study utilized a cross- sectional design and a 3 way (2x2x2) analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results revealed that neuroticism significantly influenced marital conflict (F (1,296) =15.01, P<.01) and there was an interaction effect between internet addiction and self concept on marital conflict (F (1,296) =7.55, P<.01). Recommendations were made in the light of the findings indicating that practical applications should be applied managing marital conflict. Introduction Marriage as an interpersonal relationship existing between a man and a woman which aids in promoting growth and development in marital life (Idokwa, 2002) has been an issue of concern globally especially in the area of marital conflict. Marital conflict is the process of conflict arising between the two parties in a marriage, which could indicate sexual disagreement, child minding differences, temperamental differences and even religious conflict of interest (Psychology Dictionary, 2013). It is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. As a result of the role the family unit plays in the overall development of the society, the problem of marital conflict calls for urgent attention because when the home, which forms the cradle of the society is settled, the society itself is at peace (Gabb & Fink, 2015). Research by various scholars show that conflict behaviour may influence couple’s marriages. According to behavioural theories of marriage, destructive behaviours result in negative evaluations of marriage and declines in marital satisfaction and stability, whereas constructive behaviours lead to improvement in evaluations of marriages and increases marital satisfaction and stability (Mgbenkedi, 2014). Among the many factors that have been associated with marital conflict is internet addiction (Lenhart, Duggan & Smith, 2014). Internet addiction is a recent and increasing recognized mailto:chinwendu.chuku@yahoo.com Influence of Internet Addiction 240 disorder that has received much attention globally (Stephanie, Racheal & Henri, 2014). The rate at which people engage in the use of the internet is so alarming including married people. Internet addiction is the inability of someone to control his or her use of the internet which eventually may lead to some psychological and social problems in the individual’s life (Okwaraji, Aguwa, Onyebueke and Sheobi-Eze, 2015) has damaging effect on interpersonal relationships and can lead to conflict among married people as they are likely to experience problems in their intimate relationship with diminished time spent together (Young, Griffin- Shelley, Cooper, Mara & Buchanam,2000; Weinstein & Lejoyeux, 2010). Another variable of interest is self concept which is seen as how we think of ourselves and how we think, behave and act out our various life roles (Maesineero, 2012). Self concept is a collection of beliefs about one’s nature, unique qualities and typical behavior (Ani, 2017). An individual’s self concept may change with time as reassessment occurs, which may lead to identity crises in extreme cases (Demidenko, Tasca, Kennedy & Bissada, 2010). Marital conflict hand self concept has a negative correlation (Peleg, 2008) as increase in self concept brings about a decrease in marital conflict in both gender. For example, married people correspond to hopes, fears, standards, goals, and threats in their marriage, of which positive evaluation is formed, the interpersonal relationship with each other remain cordial; but when the negative evaluation is formed, the self concept turns low and the marriage in conflict. However, when there is low self concept in the spouse, personality is affected. Neuroticism is another factor that may predict marital conflict (Mayer, 2014b). Neuroticism is considered by many to be one of the most significant dimensions of personality. Alongside four other traits openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness, it sighted as one of the “Big Five” personality factors (Heady, Muffels & Wagner, 2010). Each spouse brings into a newly created union a legacy of his or her background (Lebowitz, 2016a). Individual traits and behaviours also affect spouse’s satisfaction with marriage (Uher & Visalberghi, 2016). Neuroticism is a high order personality related to addiction, irrational thinking, poor impulse control, worry, high negative affect (Costa & McCrea, 1992). It is a strong predictor of psychological problems, especially those related to marital conflict (Timothy & Paula, 2016). Extensive literature was reviewed on the causes of marital conflict and different factors were seen to be the cause of marital conflict. Many of these literatures were obtained mostly in the western studies and may not be applicable in Nigeria and African countries. Substantial research in this area needs to be carried out in Nigeria to cross validate these findings. The high rate of divorce and marital conflict has been an alarming issue in the southern part of Nigeria. It has been observed that children, youths and adults engaging in criminal activities are in most cases products of this faulty background (marital conflict). It is also observed by the researcher that due to this menace, individuals from such homes are exposed at a very young age to such ills as a result of destabilized homes. There is equally little or no research done on this area of study in this geographical area. The objective of this study is to examine the influence of internet addiction, self concept and neuroticism on marital conflict among married people in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State. The study will provide answers to know if; there will be any influence of internet addiction on marital conflict, self concept on marital conflict, neuroticism on marital conflict, a joint interaction of internet addiction and self concept on marital conflict, self concept and neuroticism on marital conflict and internet addiction, self concept and neuroticism on marital conflict. In this study, marital conflict is defined as unresolved conflict, misunderstanding, and quarreling, fighting or possible separation in marriage as measured by scores on marital conflict behavior checklist (MCBC) by Omeje (1998). Internet addiction is the addictive use of the internet by married people as measured by scores on the internet addictive test (IAT) developed by Young (1997). Self concept is the way married people see or perceive themselves as seen in two dimensions: low self concept (decline in the level of self confidence) or high self concept (maintaining a steady and stable confidence) as measured by scores in the semantic differential self concept scale modified by Ezeilo (1982) while Neuroticism is the tendency to focus on the negative aspects of self which is characterized by anxiety, sadness, irritability, and nervous tension as measured by scores on the neuroticism subscale of the big five personality inventory by John, Donahue & Kentle (1991). Married people experiencing marital conflict are affected by a wide range of variables including ethnicity, gender, age, religion, level of education and personality. Married people have distinctive characteristics of personality that make them view the world and their life experiences differently. Taking these differences into consideration can help clinicians to recognize the individual differences existing in them seriously (Helsper & Whitty, 2010). Participants. The participants for this study were drawn from five archdeaconries of the Anglican diocese of Niger Delta North in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State. 304 participants were randomly selected using simple random and criterion techniques. They were made up of 181 males and 123 females, 71 participants were from Ikwerre ethnicity, 70 were of Igbo ethnicity, 48 were of Yoruba ethnicity, 48 were of Ijaw ethnicity while 67 belongs to Kalabari ethnic groups. Their ages range from 25 years to 59 years with 39.3 as the mean age. Instruments The measuring instruments used in this research included the Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Young,1997), the Sematic Differential Self Concept Scale (SDSCS; Ezeilo, 1982), the Neuroticism Subscale of the Big Five Inventory (N-BFI; John et al, 1991) and the Marital Conflict Behaviour Checklist (MCBC; Omeje, 1998). (a) Internet Addiction Test (IAT) - The IAT (Young,1997) is a 20-item internet addiction test developed by Young (1997) used to assess the addictive use of the internet by married people. This instrument has three dimensions: mild, moderate and severe levels and sample item includes: “How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?” The response is patterned on five-point Likert-type format ranging from “Always” to “Rarely”. Respondents are expected to indicate the extent to which they agree with the list statements regarding internet addiction. Internal reliability coefficients of .72 and a convergent validity of .70 were obtained by the developer. For Nigerian sample, Okwaraji et. al (2015) reported internal reliability coefficients of .73 and a concurrent validity of .88. The researcher in a pilot study Influence of Internet Addiction 242 obtained a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .71 with a sample of 57 married people and mean of the respondents of 59.98. (b) Semantic Differential Self Concept Scale (SDSCS )- The SDSCS (Ezeilo, 1982) is a measure for self concept developed by Ezeilo (1982). The 54 item scale measures how various people see themselves by having them judge themselves against series of descriptive scale. Sample items include, “healthy……unhealthy”, “unattractive….attractive”. This instrument is on a 7-point scale, 1 at the negative end pole and 7 at the positive end. The developer reported reliability Cronbach alpha of .70 and .64. A pilot study conducted by the researcher yielded a Cronbach alpha of .83 with 57 married people and a mean of 24.65. (c) Neuroticism Subscale of the Big Five Inventory (N-BFI)- The N-BFI (John et. al, 1991) is a subscale of 8 items of neuroticism components drawn from 44-item designed to measure five dimensions of personality namely; Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. John et al (1991) provided the original psychometric properties for American samples of 24.00 on neuroticism while Ume (2004) earlier provided psychometric properties for Nigerian sample M (n=60) 23.43 and F (n=60) 24.48 for neuroticism. A pilot study by the researcher yielded a Cronbach alpha of .89 and mean of 19.14 for neuroticism sub scale of BFI which has only 8 items. (d) Marital Conflict Behaviour Checklist (MCBC) - The MCBC (Omeje, 1998) was designed to measure the behavior spouses usually engage in during conflict. It is a 37-item scale with 4- point response scale 1= rarely, 2=occasionally, 3=often and 4= always. The psychometric properties are .94 reliability coefficient and concurrent reliability coefficient of .80. The researcher yielded a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .67, N=57, mean= 101.39. Procedure The researcher obtained introductory letter from the Head of Psychology department, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, which was addressed to the clergymen in charge of the selected five churches from the archdeaconries in the Anglican diocese of Niger Delta North of Rivers state. The church clerks were recruited and trained as research assistants to administer and collect copies of the questionnaires in all the churches. Participants who met the criteria for selection using criterion sampling technique were selected. Selected married people were drawn from each of the five archdeaconries making use of multistage sampling technique for effective use of limited resources (Patton, 2002) and copies of the questionnaires administered. A total of 400 copies of the questionnaires were distributed. 338 were filled and returned representing 84.5%, 34 copies were discarded due to inappropriate filling and lack of inclusion criteria, while 304 representing 76% were used for analysis. Design and Statistics The design for this study was a cross sectional survey research design, descriptive statistics and three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) F-test were used for statistical analysis through SPSS version 20. Results Table 1: Summary Table of Means and Standard Deviation on Internet Addiction, × Self- Concept × Neuroticism on Marital Conflict among Married People. Internet Addiction Self-Concept Neuroticism Mean Std. Deviation N Addiction Low Self-concept Not Neurotic 93.6140 31.78148 57 Neurotic 100.9759 32.41310 83 Total 97.9786 32.24735 140 High Self-Concept Not Neurotic 74.0000 23.64502 47 Neurotic 94.0526 26.07676 38 Total 82.9647 26.57579 85 Total Not Neurotic 84.7500 29.91761 104 Neurotic 98.8017 30.62668 121 Total 92.3067 31.03813 225 No Addiction Low Self-concept Not Neurotic 75.1364 32.23913 22 Neurotic 99.6316 39.75230 19 Total 86.4878 37.54605 41 High Self-Concept Not Neurotic 91.0000 25.76820 20 Neurotic 101.4444 31.26024 18 Total 95.9474 28.59876 38 Total Not Neurotic 82.6905 30.07267 42 Neurotic 100.5135 35.38959 37 Total 91.0380 33.66785 79 Total Low Self-concept Not Neurotic 88.4684 32.77931 79 Neurotic 100.7255 33.68790 102 Total 95.3757 33.75734 181 High Self-Concept Not Neurotic 79.0746 25.34269 67 Neurotic 96.4286 27.77825 56 Total 86.9756 27.75994 123 Total Not Neurotic 84.1575 29.87299 146 Neurotic 99.2025 31.69616 158 Total 91.9770 31.69069 304 The above table shows the mean and standard deviation of CGPA, addiction and no addiction; high and low self concept; neurotic and not neurotic married people. The CGPA mean= 91.98, SD=31.69. Internet addicted mean= 92.31, Not internet addicted mean= 91.04, low self concept mean=95.38, high self concept mean=86.98, not neurotic mean=84.16 while neurotic mean=99.20. Comparing the mean scores of the respondents show index of married people who are neurotic obtained the highest group of 101.44 while index of CGPA has the lowest with a value of 74.00. Table II: Summary table of 3-way ANOVA F-test on influence of internet addiction × self-concept × neuroticism on marital conflict Influence of Internet Addiction 244 Source Type III Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Corrected Model 31212.027a 7 4458.861 4.833 .000 Intercept 1896861.529 1 1896861.529 2055.986 .000 Internet Addiction 74.364 1 74.364 .081 .777 Self-Concept 279.582 1 279.582 .303 .582 Personality Trait 13845.013 1 13845.013 15.006 .000 Internet Addiction * Self-Concept 6961.108 1 6961.108 7.545 .006 Internet Addiction * Neuroticism 201.648 1 201.648 .219 .640 Self-Concept * Neuroticism 6.586 1 6.586 .007 .933 Internet Addiction * Self-Concept * Neuroticism 2546.450 1 2546.450 2.760 .098 Error 273090.812 296 922.604 Total 2876071.000 304 Corrected Total 304302.839 303 a. R Squared = .103 (Adjusted R Squared = .081) b. Computed using alpha = .05 ANOVA in table III above shows that married people who were neurotic significantly exhibited marital conflict more than those who were not neurotic. Figure I. Graph of the effect of self-esteem and internet addiction The estimated mean of marital conflict shows that there was a significant interaction between internet addiction and self concept in influencing the exhibition of marital conflict in married people. Discussion The findings of this study revealed that neuroticism significantly influenced married people’s manifestation of marital conflict with neurotic married people having more marital conflict than married people who are not neurotic counterpart. This indicates that the third hypothesis was accepted. The outcome of this study was found to be in agreement with separate studies by (Claxton, Rourke, and Smith 2012; Shiota & Levenson, 2007; Jarareh & Temadi, 2008) which agree that people who manifest neuroticism, create persistent vulnerabilities in marital relationships and increase the negative emotion in either or both partners which tend to be toxic to one’s marriage. This result is in accordance with Drake, Morris & Davis (2017) which revealed that married people high in neuroticism are more likely to report inadequate and unhelpful support from their spouses especially in the areas of finance, chores, sexual Influence of Internet Addiction 246 gratification etc. These findings may suggest that neurotic spouses without adequate support may experience conflict more due to their volatile nature. Due to negative perception of self and others, they may also complain of relatives like in-laws not supporting in running errands for them always while those without neuroticism tend to think positively which predisposes them to see their partners as supportive and in turn help in building their relationship stronger. The last table revealed that, internet addiction and self concept jointly contributed to the exhibition of marital conflict. At internet addiction condition, people with low self concept exhibited marital conflict more than those with high self concept. At not internet addicted condition, people with high self concept exhibited marital conflict more than those with low self concept. This finding suggests that internet addiction and self concept influenced marital conflict. The result suggested that to deal with marital conflict, married people who are internet addicted ought to develop high self concept as those with low self concept suffer more marital conflict. Again, the result opined that those who are not addicted and have low self concept experience marital conflict less than those who have high self concept. This finding is in line with the work done by Judge et al., (2002) who found that high neuroticism is related to difficulties in life, including addiction, low self concept and unhealthy adjustment to life’s challenge which affects relationship in married people. Possible explanation being that individuals who are always irritated, easily stressed by happenings around them also perceive themselves as failures in their marriage resort to internet addiction due to low self concept to pacify themselves by showing off online (Fisher & McNulty, 2008). This finding may suggest that the constant usage of the internet by such a spouse with low self concept may bring about arguments, quarrels and disagreement between the two which triggers conflict in the home as no spouse would condone seeing the partner abstaining from his/her responsibility in the home. Conclusion This research investigated the influence of internet addiction, self concept and neuroticism on marital conflict. This study through due process of empirical research asserts that marital conflict is an issue of concern among married people in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State as married people with neuroticism are exposed to marital conflict. Also, there are married people with no addiction of the internet but with high self concept who are prone to experience marital conflict. Recommendations Since this study has indicated reliable relationship between neuroticism and marital conflict, most married people should be encouraged to take personality tests and close monitoring should be done for people who score very high on neuroticism. These set of people according to research are prone to marital conflict than others. Secondly, since this research has also established an interaction between internet addiction and self concept in influencing married people’s exhibition of marital conflict, it is pertinent to note that young married people should be educated to ascertain their level of similarities and differences in the exhibition of marital conflict. 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