Empirical Study of Psychological Factors Influencing Cybersecurity Behaviour Among Civil Servants in Kaduna State

Individual psychological factors including risk perception, self-efficacy, and attitude toward security significantly influence cybersecurity protective behaviour, and empirically characterising their relationships in the civil service context of Kaduna State fills an important gap in North West Nigerian cybersecurity behaviour research. This study empirically investigated the psychological determinants of cybersecurity protective behaviour among civil servants in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 300 state government employees from five ministries using stratified random sampling. A validated cybersecurity behaviour model incorporating risk perception, self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norm, and information security awareness was tested using structural equation modelling. Results showed that information security awareness (beta = 0.48, p < 0.001) and self-efficacy (beta = 0.44, p < 0.001) were the strongest positive predictors of protective behaviour. Risk perception showed a significant positive effect only when moderated by awareness, confirming that awareness is necessary to translate risk perception into action. Subjective norm showed stronger effects for collective-oriented behaviour dimensions (reporting, sharing alerts) than individual security practices. The model explained 57.4 percent of variance in security behaviour. Gender differences were not significant after controlling for other variables. The study provides original empirical evidence for the psychological behaviour model in Nigerian civil service contexts and recommends awareness-integrated self-efficacy building as the primary training focus for Kaduna State government cybersecurity programmes. Keywords: cybersecurity behaviour, psychological factors, civil servants, Kaduna State, information security awareness