Abstract

The main thrust of this study was to investigate the influence of peer pressure, self-concept, societal values, parenting styles, social support and personality types as predictor of internet crime among undergraduates in a Nigerian university. Three hundred undergraduates of University of Ibadan were selected in five faculties using simple random sampling technique. Their ages ranged between 16 and 35 years with a mean of 25.5. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Four research hypotheses and three research questions were tested and answered using Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression analysis. The findings showed that there was significant relationship between peer pressure and internet crime (r= .726, p<0.05). There was a significant relationship between self-concept and internet crime (r= .907, p<0.05). Also, there was significant relationship between societal values and internet crime (r= .679, p<0.05). Parenting styles was also found to have significant relationship with internet crime (r= .797, p<0.05). Social support was also found significant with internet crime (r= .794, p<0.05). There was also significant relationship between Neuroticism and internet crime (r= .616; p<.05), Agreeableness (r= .608; p<.05), Extraversion (r= .620; p<.05), Conscientiousness (r= .504; p<.05) and Openness(r = .970; p<.05). The ten independent variables jointly accounted for 77.3% variance in predicting internet crime among University of Ibadan undergraduates. It was recommended that society should not place much importance on materialism rather it should encourage and foster positive and socially acceptable behaviour, hard work, rather than glorifying people who are making money through dubious means.