Determining Symptomatic Factors of Nomophobia in Peruvian Students from the National University of Engineering

Abstract

The use of cell phones has increased worldwide in the past few decades, particularly in children and adolescents. Using these devices provides personal benefits. Communicating through cell phones was a very important factor in the socioeconomic progress of developed countries. However, it is beyond doubt that its indiscriminate use can accompany certain psychiatric disorders or cause some disorder in a person, within the phobic group of anxiety disorders called nomophobia—associated with anxiety, nervousness, discomfort, and distress when contact with the smartphone is lost, mainly in young users. This research proposal aims to identify symptoms that have not yet been detected by intensive cell phone use, considering that in Peru there are few studies of human health engineering and the physical mental health. Is for this reason that in our study, we sought to identify the symptomatic factors of nomophobia presented by students at the National University of Engineering and its interference with their academic life. To accomplish this study, we designed a questionnaire according to our reality with the use of focus groups techniques when the test was taken in class. Three symptomatic factors of nomophobia were identified: feelings of anxiety, compulsive smartphone use, and feelings of anxiety and panic. The study included a representative sample of 461 students of different years of study engineering (21\% women, 79\% men, over 17 years of age). Finally, given the widespread adoption of smartphones and their integration into educational environments, the results of this study can help educators understand students’ inclination to use their smartphones at all times.

The Relationship between Nomophobia and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Levels of University Students

“…Factors such as people isolating themselves and limiting face-to-face communication, using the phone as a method of coping with stressful situations, and avoiding the negative emotions they experience in the virtual world are thought to contribute. Examining the studies on anxiety, symptomatic factors of nomophobia were identified as anxiety, compulsive smartphone use, and panic, in a study conducted on university students by Rosales-Huamani et al (2019). Therefore, individuals with nomophobia are expected to have a high level of anxiety.…”

Relationships between personality traits and nomophobia: Research on nurses working in public hospitals

“…Studies carried out have proven that the level of nomophobia is high in young population 3,6,11 . Even though there are umpteen studies in the literature where women are generally more nomophobic, 12–14 so far there are no studies on whether the marital status and education have significant effects on nomophobia 15–18 …”

“…3,6,11 Even though there are umpteen studies in the literature where women are generally more nomophobic, [12][13][14] so far there are no studies on whether the marital status and education have significant effects on nomophobia. [15][16][17][18] 1.2 | The behaviors of smartphone use and nomophobia Today, smartphones have become an indispensable part of individuals' lives. In several research, it is stated that the time for daily smartphone use is between 4 and 5 h, and the more people get used to using smartphones, their periods of usage increases automatically.…”

Nomophobia: impact of cell phone use and time to rest among teacher students

“…Nomophobia can affect various population groups, especially young people, whether they are university students (Bartwal and Nath, 2019;Farooqui et al, 2017) or at other educational stages (Rosales-Huamani et al, 2019). This occurs when people are unable to communicate and are disconnected from their virtual identity.…”