Abstract

This study aims at examining personality traits and gender influencing secondary school students’ attitudes toward ICT use. A total of one hundred and fifty-eight (158) in-school adolescents participated in the study. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to select the area council in Abuja, Nigeria, while simple random sampling was utilized to select three (3) Secondary schools in Abuja Municipal Area Council. The gender distribution showed that more of the respondents, 101 (63.9%) were females, while the other 57 (36.1%) were males. Two standardized instruments were used to develop the items on the questionnaire and the data were collected in the students’ classrooms after observing the ethical considerations. Two hypotheses were developed and tested in the study. Based on the analysis of data, the results revealed joint prediction of personality traits on attitude of students toward ICT [R = .27; R2 = .07; F (5, 149) = 2.28; P<.05]. Personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) accounted for about 7% variance in attitude towards ICT while only agreeableness was found to have a significant and independent influence on attitude towards ICT (β = .18; t = 2.05; P<.05). This partially confirms the stated hypothesis. Furthermore, gender predicted attitude of students towards ICT [t (152) = 2.29; P<.05], male students were found to report more favourable attitude towards ICT (Mean = 52.75; SD = 5.58) compared to their female counterparts (Mean = 50.49; SD = 6.14). This confirms the stated hypothesis and hence, was retained in this study. Therefore, the results have implications for encouraging female secondary students to learn ICT and teaching with ICT applications should be made compulsory in all secondary schools in Abuja. This will go a long way toward developing students’ interests and competency in ICT.