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 electronic 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 bring up certain psychiatric disorders or cause some disorder in a person, within the phobic group of anxiety disorders called nomophobia; basically associated with anxiety, nervousness, discomfort, and distress when contact with the smartphone is lost, mainly in the youngest users. This research proposal aims to identify symptoms that have not yet been detected by unceasing cell phone use, considering that in Peru there are few studies of human health engineering and the physical mental health. For that reason, 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 in 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.

Nomophobia: An Individual’s Growing Fear of Being without a Smartphone—A Systematic Literature Review

“…However, other instruments have also been created based on measurement scales and ad hoc questionnaires that have been used to obtain information on the prevalence of nomophobia and another linked to it, such as those provided by the research of [5,11,12,15,16,23,25,26,33,35,37,39,58,60,64,65], among others.…”

“…The research analyzed is eminently exploratory, descriptive, nonexperimental, correlational, and cross-sectional, using the questionnaire as a single research collection instrument [1,2,4,13,16,[18][19][20]23,25,26,[29][30][31][32][33]35,37,39,58,[61][62][63][64], presenting a quantitative methodological design. Others, however, extend this information with mixed methodological design, including qualitative techniques, such as interviews or discussion groups [5,20,24,65].…”

“…The samples used in the various studies vary considerably, both in number, where there is a range from one person to 3216, and in the population on which it is focused. First, in relation to the size of the sample, there are studies that have used a sample between one and 150 people [19,21,27,33,59,61], between 151 and 400 people [11,13,18,[23][24][25]30,31,34,35,60,62,64], between 401 and 1000 people [1,2,4,12,[14][15][16]22,26,29,32,36,37,39,58,63,65], or more than 1000 [7]. Second, with regard to population, studies have focused on volunteers of various classes and types [5,16,20,22,59,60], adolescents or youth [4,7,28,[34]…”

“…Most studies have conducted their research exclusively using the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) [1,2,4,7,13,14,18,19,22,24,[27][28][29][30][31][32]34,62,64] proposed by [24], which has been adequate and adapted to Persian [7], Indian [2], Spanish [27,28,34], Israeli [14], Italian [12], and Arabic [22] contexts. Other researchers have also added another measuring instrument, such as the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) [12,14], Obsessiveness Content Scale (OBS) [25], ultrasonography of the median nerve, Phalen's test, and reverse Phalen's test [61], FOMO Scale [15], UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), Self-Happiness Scale and Rosenberg' Self-Esteem Scale [26], Stress Scale Social Threat Scale [11], Brief Symptom Inventory [12], Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire (MPIQ) [35], Scale of Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) and Scale of Attention Awareness Mindful-Warning (MAAS) [39], Mindful-Awareness Scale (MAAS) [58], Individualism-Collectivism (INDCOL) [63], Problematic Internet Use Scale (PIUS), Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) and Social media use integration scale [37], Emotional Intelli...…”

Do Age, Gender and Poor Diet Influence the Higher Prevalence of Nomophobia among Young People?

“…This problem seems to affect various populations, especially young people, whether they are university students [38][39][40] or at other educational stages [44,45], especially when they cannot communicate and are disconnected from their virtual identity. In regards to gender, some studies indicate that women show greater symptoms of this phobia due to their higher dependence on their smartphone [39].…”