Influence of Gender and Marital Status on Mobile Phone Addictive Behaviours of Students Exposed to Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies

Abstract

Influence of Gender and Marital Status on Mobile Phone Addictive Behaviours of Students Exposed to Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies 1. Introduction Mobile technology is evolving at a very fast rate and globally, there has been tremendous growth in the use of mobile phones. The mobile phone also known as the cell phone is a portable device that can be used to communicate among others over a wide area, without a physical connection to a network. They have become a necessity and popular for many people throughout the world. They are seen to be powerful and versatile tools to the extent that, for many of us, we feel indispensable when they are not physically attached to us. Many aspects of our everyday lifestyle have been touched and transformed with the use of this device due to its numerous functionalities. For example, on the Ghanaian University campuses, students are not restricted to the use of mobile phones. They are actively engaged in using their mobile phones for a variety of purposes such ascending messages, receiving calls, taking snapshots and selfies, among others. They are always preoccupied in the mobile phone realms. The multifunctional nature of the device has attracted the attention of both the young and the old and it is very rare to see them not clinging to mobile phones in public places. Students of different ages, economic status, and sex now own and use mobile phones. It is particularly observed that cell phone use is rapidly becoming integrated into their daily lives. They frequently take delight in searching for technological updates in communication technology. Bhutia and Tariang (2016), for example, observed that mobile phones are commonly patronised by college students. Mobile phone, which can be described as one of the fastest-growing communication technologies, is more prevalent among students. Mobile phones have allowed a lot of students to become accessible to each other frequently and in more places. A study by Balakrishnan and Raj (2012) found that mobile phones are popular among students onuniversity campuses. The usage promotes togetherness, sharing of security information in times of danger. Cell phones aid students in managing their academic exercises, such as organizing assignments and finding course information, with ease (Tossell, Kortum, Shepard, Rahmati, & Zhong, 2015). Although cell phones immensely contribute towards students' academic effort, they could be harmful depending on the extent of use. Many students are cultivating the habit of mobile phone dependency which appears to hurt their academic work. Findings of a study by Goswami and Singh (2016), showed that mobile phones can impair students' learning. A study by Liu (2017) revealed that mobile phone dependency can lead to psychosocial and personal challenges that affect the individual's wellbeing. Other studies confirm the harmful effects mobile phones have on physical, clinical

Do gender and age jointly or individually moderate the effects of cognitive and behavioral therapies on addiction to mobile phone calling behavior?

“…The findings herein indicate that neither cognitive therapy nor behavioral therapy being used independently was efficacious in reducing mobile phone calling addiction among university students. This finding contradicts Edjah and Ankomah (2020), whose study reported a significant impact of cognitive and behavioral therapies in the reduction of mobile phone addiction in general (a behavior that cut across the broad spectrum of various mobile phone addictive behaviors and not on the mobile phone calling addiction behavior as in the case of the present study) among students. Similarly, it also contradicts Hofmann et al's (2012) findings that cognitive therapy helps with many of life's challenges including anxiety, depression, and addiction.…”

Assessing the Cell Phone Behaviours of Undergraduate Regular University Students: Implications for Counselling

“…Though participants were not frequent on phone calling, 'they spent more money on calls' (M = 3.43, SD = 1.18), attended to all missed calls (M = 3.42, SD = 1.08), and 'had strong urges to use cell phone for calling' (M = 3.03, SD =1. 19). This could explain why participants were so much involved in text messaging by making it their most preferred form of communication as well as a way of staying connected with friends and loved ones.…”

“…Apart from student's cell phone use for learning purposes and leisure, it also offers them the opportunity to establish new relationships [15] and increased family relationships [18]. However, the behavioural addiction of student's use of cell phones remains a serious challenge [19]. Even though studies have been conducted on the use of mobile phones among university students in Ghana [20,21], the specific behaviours students exhibit in the use of the cell phones and the counselling implications were not key in their investigations.…”