Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 24, Issue 6, 17 September 2008, Pages 2639-2648
Computers in Human Behavior

Multivariate effects of gender, ownership, and the frequency of use on computer anxiety among high school students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.03.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Studies that address the problems associated with computer anxiety are abundant; however, fewer studies took into account multivariate nature of the construct. Moreover, studies focusing on high school students are even more limited. Thus, the present study investigated the multivariate effects of gender, ownership, and the frequency of computer use on computer anxiety levels, after controlling for the possible effects of trait anxiety among 715 Turkish high school students. The Computer Anxiety Scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to assess computer anxiety and state and trait anxiety levels, respectively. A 2 X 2 X 3 between-subjects factorial multivariate analysis of covariance was used on three dependent variables that are the three dimensions of computer anxiety: Affective Anxiety, Damaging Anxiety, and Learning Anxiety. Independent variables are gender, ownership (i.e., yes or no), and the frequency of computer use (i.e., everyday, several times a week, or once a week or less). Results showed a significant covariate effect of trait anxiety, significant main effects for gender, ownership, and the frequency of computer use on the dependent variables. No three-way or two-way interaction was detected. After the descriptive and comparative analyses, specific suggestions were provided based on the results.

Introduction

With the more extensive use in all levels of education (Durndell and Haag, 2002, Imhof et al., 2007), issues related to computers are more focus of interest among researchers. It is predicted that the higher number of people use computers in their daily lives, the more will face difficulties with them (Beckers & Schmidt, 2001). In this context, the construct of computer anxiety has been studied since the beginnings of the 80’s, mostly focusing on the non-cognitive factors such as attitudes, previous experiences with computers, trait anxiety, or personality-related factors.

Even though the construct of computer anxiety has been studied for an extended period of time, there is still no consensus in the literature regarding its definition (Beckers, Wicherts, & Schmidt, 2007). However, according to a commonly used definition, computer anxiety is the fear and apprehension felt by an individual when considering the utilization of computer technology or when actually using computers (Maurer, 1983). A review of the literature showed that most definitions of computer anxiety include a fear component (Chua, Chen, & Wong, 1999). Computerphobia (Rosen, Sears, & Weil, 1987), computer apprehension (Anderson, 1996), computer resistance (Bohlin & Hunt, 1995), or technophobia (Brosnan, 1999) are some of the other terms used interchangeably with computer anxiety.

Regardless of the term, there is evidence that a large number of students hold negative attitudes towards and experience high levels of computer anxiety (e.g., North & Noyes, 2002). Bozionelos (2001) found that as high as 40–50% of students experience computer anxiety. More specifically, there is evidence that high school students may experience higher levels of computer anxiety than college students (Loyd & Gressard, 1984).

Recently, computer anxiety has been conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct, including psychological, operational, and sociological components (e.g., Beckers and Schmidt, 2001, Beckers et al., 2007). Owning a personal computer (PC) at home (ownership) and the frequency of computer use were found to be two of the operational components of computer anxiety (e.g., Brosnan, 1999, Keser, 2001, Rosen and Weil, 1995, Üstündağ, 2001). Arıkan (2002) found that those individuals who owned a PC at home showed less anxiety related to computers. Similarly, Chua et al. (1999) and Chou (2003) found that computer usage was negatively related to computer anxiety. In a relatively earlier study, Selwyn (1997) found that, out of 530 students, 68.5% had a PC at home; but there was no relationship between ownership and frequency of computer use. With a group of Turkish college students, Namlu and Ceyhan (2002) found that 19.8% of the students had a PC at home and those who had a PC showed significantly lower levels of computer anxiety. In addition, they found that as the frequency of computer use increased, computer anxiety levels decreased. This meant that students who used computers more often showed lower levels of computer anxiety compared to those who used computers less frequently.

Gender may be the single most widely investigated sociological variable in computer anxiety research (Mcilroy, Bunting, Tierney, & Gordon, 2001). Generally speaking, men have more positive attitudes toward computers than women (Bovee et al., 2007, Dupin-Bryant, 2002). In addition, women show higher levels of computer anxiety than men (e.g., Abdelhamid, 2002, Durndell and Haag, 2002, Mcilroy et al., 2001, Todman, 2000). However, other studies failed to find significant differences between men and women on computer anxiety levels (e.g., Colley et al., 1994, Rosen and Weil, 1995, Scott and Rockwell, 1997, Tekinarslan, 2008). On the contrary, a few earlier studies found that men showed higher levels of computer anxiety than women (e.g., Brosnan and Lee, 1998, Lever et al., 1989, Siann et al., 1990). Rosen and Maguire (1990) concluded that although some studies have found gender differences, such differences were minimal. Emphasizing the interaction between gender and computer usage, Scott and Rockwell (1997) argue that gender differences on computer anxiety are a function of different levels of computer experience (i.e., the frequency of computer use).

Current literature is inconsistent regarding the factors of computer anxiety. In addition, fewer studies have investigated computer anxiety levels among high school students. Chua et al. (1999) reported 15 studies that investigated college students’ computer anxiety levels, whereas, only five studies focused on high school students. A recent search of the literature between 2000 and 2008 on PsycINFO with “computer anxiety” as a descriptor revealed 47 studies, 35 peer-reviewed articles and 12 dissertations. Of the studies, 44 focused on college students or adult populations whereas, only two studies focused on high school students. Thus, scarcity of the studies on high school populations continues. More limited is multivariate investigation of the construct, even though there seems to be a consensus on the multidimensionality of computer anxiety. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the multivariate effects of gender, ownership, and the frequency of computer use on computer anxiety levels, after controlling for the possible effects of trait anxiety among Turkish high school students.

Section snippets

Participants

Seven hundred fifteen Turkish high school students participated in the study. Students’ ages ranged from 14 to 19 years with a mean of 16.18 years (SD = .95). Of the group, 389 (54.4%) were boys and 326 (45.6%) were girls. There were 120 (16.8%) first-graders, 242 (33.8%) sophomores, 293 (41.0%) juniors, and 60 (8.4%) seniors in the group. More than half of the students did not have a PC at home (n = 447, 62.5%). Two hundred thirty seven students (33.2%) reported using computers every day. Half of

Results

Preliminary results showed that more boys than girls had a PC at home (n = 158 vs. n = 110); however, this difference was not statistically significant (χ(1)2=3.46,p<.07). There were significant associations between ownership and the frequency of computer use (χ(2)2=185.78,p<.001) and the frequency of computer use and gender (χ(2)2=11.06,p<.01). Boys who owned a PC at home used computers most frequently. Means, standard deviations, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients for the CAS and

Discussion

Studies that address the problems associated with and correlates of computer anxiety are abundant; however, a review of the literature on the topic shows inconsistent results with regard to gender effects. Moreover, fewer studies have focused on high school students, even though they may experience high levels of computer anxiety (Loyd & Gressard, 1984). Lastly, the multivariate nature of the construct of computer anxiety has not been adequately integrated into current literature. Therefore,

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions led to a more comprehensive paper.

This study is supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.

References (52)

  • A. Durndell et al.

    Computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the Internet and reported experience with the Internet, by gender, in an East European sample

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2002)
  • M. Imhof et al.

    Computer use and the gender gap: The issue of access, use, motivation, and performance

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2007)
  • M. Karavidas et al.

    The effects of computers on older adults

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2005)
  • D. Mcilroy et al.

    The relation of gender and background experience to self-reported computing anxieties and cognition

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2001)
  • A.S. North et al.

    Gender influences on children’s computer attitudes and cognitions

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2002)
  • L.D. Rosen et al.

    Computer anxiety: A cross-cultural comparison of university students in ten countries

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (1995)
  • G. Siann et al.

    The effect of computer use on gender differences in attitudes to computers

    Computers in Education

    (1990)
  • E. Tekinarslan

    Computer anxiety: A cross-cultural comparative study of Dutch and Turkish university students

    Computers in Human Behavior

    (2008)
  • J. Todman

    Gender differences in computer anxiety among university entrants since 1992

    Computers & Education

    (2000)
  • I.S. Abdelhamid

    Attitudes towards computers: A study of gender differences and other variables

    Journal of the Social Sciences

    (2002)
  • Arıkan, D. (2002). Sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının bilgisayara yönelik tutumları, bilgisayar kaygı düzeyleri ve bilgisayar...
  • R.M. Bohlin et al.

    Course structure effects on students’ computer anxiety

    Journal of Educational Computing Research

    (1995)
  • E. Ceyhan et al.

    Bilgisayar Kaygısı Ölçeği: Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması [The computer anxiety scale: Validity and reliability]

    Anadolu Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

    (2000)
  • A.M. Colley et al.

    Effects of gender role identity and experience on computer attitude components

    Journal of Educational Computing Research

    (1994)
  • Deniz, L. (1994). Bilgisayar Tutum Ölçeği’nin geçerlik, güvenirlik ve norm çalışması ve örnek bir uygulama [Development...
  • Dupin-Bryant, P. (2002). Reducing computer anxiety in adults learning to use microcomputers. Journal of Extension,...
  • Cited by (30)

    • The role of metacognitive listening strategies awareness and podcast-use readiness in using podcasting for learning English as a foreign language

      2012, Computers in Human Behavior
      Citation Excerpt :

      Computer use which is characterized as the total number of hours a week or a day individuals spend working with computer has been found to be one of the most important factors that influence computer attitudes (Beckers & Schmidt, 2003). Some studies have linked users’ experience with technology to access in terms of physical availability of the devices (Imhof, Vollmeyer, & Beierlein, 2007) and ownership (Baloğlu & Çevik, 2008). There is further evidence in the literature that more experiences with technology increase the degree of self-confidence in using computers, create positive attitudes toward technology and decreases or eradicates computer anxiety (Matthews & Shrum, 2003).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    Tel.: +90 356 2521616/3415; fax: +90 356 2521546.

    View full text