Abstract
This study explores relationships among demographics, perceived leisure functions, personality traits and time spent on the Internet/PC as a leisure activity in a representative sample of Taiwanese adults. Correlation analysis showed that the demographic factors of gender, age, educational level, income and rural/urban residence, as well as the perceived leisure functions of establishing useful contacts, relaxing/recovering and learning/developing skills, and the personality traits of Extraversion and Sensation-Seeking all significantly correlated with the frequency of spending time on the Internet/PC as a leisure activity. However, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the demographic factors of age, educational level, income and rural/urban residence were significant predictors of time spent on the Internet/PC as a leisure activity, accounting for 55.4% of the total variance, but gender was not. In addition, only the perceived leisure function of learning/developing skills and the personality trait of Sensation-Seeking added significantly to the three demographic factors in the prediction of time spent on the Internet/PC as a leisure activity. Some of our findings were consistent with the existing literature, but others raised new questions and invite further investigation.