ORIGINAL PAPER Moderating Role of Gender in the Relationship between Big Five Personality Traits and Smartphone Addiction Ibrahim Arpaci 1 & Tugba Kocadag Unver 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract This study contributed to cyberpsychology literature by identifying moderating role of gender in the relationship between personality traits and smartphone addiction. A multi- group SEM analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between five factor personality traits (i.e. Big Five) and smartphone addiction among men and women. Big- Five-Inventory (BFI) and Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) were used to collect data from 320 undergraduate students. The results suggested a positively significant relationship between neuroticism (emotional imbalance) and smartphone addiction for women only. Whereas, conscientiousness was negatively related with smartphone addic- tion for women. Further, there was a negatively significant relationship between agree- ableness and smartphone addiction for both genders. The findings suggested that gender has a moderating role in the relationship between neuroticism and smartphone addiction. Keywords Big five . Gender differences . Personality . Smartphone addiction Introduction Although smartphone addiction is still in debate [1], it can be defined as maladaptive, excessive, or problematic use of smartphones that disturb individuals’ social functions [2]. DSM-V reports that a behavioural addiction should involve withdrawal, compulsive behavior, tolerance, and functional impairment [3]. Thus, smartphone addiction can be defined as an emerging type of behavioral addiction characterized by withdrawal, compulsive behavior, Psychiatric Quarterly https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09718-5 * Ibrahim Arpaci ibrahimarpaci@gmail.com Tugba Kocadag Unver tugba.kocadag@gop.edu.tr 1 Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University, Tokat, Turkey