Shared and behavior-specific temperament–character correlates of behavioral addiction risks among medical students

Abstract Background and Aim This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of multiple behavioral addiction risks among medical students and examine their shared and behavior-specific temperament and character correlates. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 385 medical students from a public university completed a sociodemographic data form, the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Patient Health Questionnaire-4, and validated measures of social media addiction, cyber pornography use, problem gambling, compulsive buying, food addiction, internet gaming disorder, and exercise dependence. Prevalence was estimated using scale-specific thresholds. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine temperament and character correlates; regression models were adjusted for age, sex, and psychological distress. Results Threshold-based prevalence was 17.1% for social media addiction, 2.3% for high-risk cyber pornography use, 8.6% for problem gambling, 12.7% for compulsive buying, 9.6% for food addiction, 2.3% for internet gaming disorder, and 1.8% for exercise dependence. Females showed higher compulsive buying scores, whereas males showed higher scores for cyber pornography use, problem gambling, internet gaming disorder, and exercise dependence. Lower self-directedness emerged as the most consistent temperament and character correlate and was independently associated with higher social media addiction, compulsive buying, and internet gaming disorder scores after controlling for age, sex, and psychological distress. Behavior-specific associations were also observed: social media addiction was additionally associated with higher reward dependence and lower cooperativeness, compulsive buying with higher novelty seeking and self-transcendence, and exercise dependence with lower harm avoidance and higher self-transcendence. Conclusion Lower self-directedness was a recurring correlate of several behavioral addiction risks, whereas other temperament and character associations varied by behavior.